


Pawprints on Bedsheets

by butcherbaker17maker



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Hybrid Seungcheol, Hybrids, M/M, Shameless Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-06-10 17:01:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 49,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6965602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butcherbaker17maker/pseuds/butcherbaker17maker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jihoon is incapable of falling in love. Seungcheol is a hybrid whose entire world consists of Jihoon. In between the genocide of "unwanted" hybrids, their charismatic heat cycles, a government trembling at the existence of half-humans and Jihoon's secret part-time job, who can predict the future? Well, somebody can, apparently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Home

“…I’m looking for something stable and sturdy. Something I can’t forget about. Something that won’t _die_ on me.”

“Okay, okay. Listen, I can show you an option that we have, but… you might not like it. And you can’t tell anybody we have him here. This whole place could go belly-up and I can’t lose my job.”

“I hear you. I won’t tell a soul.”

“Okay,” Samuel grinned. “This way. He’s in the back.”

The young man was led down a long corridor of kennels: plenty of dogs yipped and yelped, jumping up against their doors, but the customer was taken straight down past them all and into another room.

“…we didn’t really have anything… large enough for him. We don’t know how to treat one of these. He’s in the free room. He’s… very shy.”

“Dangerous?”

“No! No, goodness. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Samuel unlocked the door slowly. “But… he’s scared of just about anything and everything.”

When the door opened, the customer was very surprised at what he found.

Sitting there in a corner of the room, huddled up on himself, sat a boy with caramel brown, fluffy ears and a matching fluffy tail up in between his legs, peeking out at the visitor with one eye.

“…you have a _hybrid_?”

“He’s not officially supposed to be here.”

“The government is taking all the unowned hybrids away,” he breathed. “If he’s not chipped, he goes to be destroyed.”

“That’s the thing. He _is_ chipped, but when you hold him under the scanner, the information comes up blank.”

The two young men stared at the small pile of boy in the corner, shaking and whining.

“…look at him. He’s frightened out of his wits.”

“…we have no idea what happened to him before he came here. We can only assume he was treated very badly.”

“…can you give us the room for a moment?”

“…sure. I’ll leave the door open in case you need to leave.”

The customer walked into the room carefully, softening his footfalls as much as possible before plopping onto the floor in the opposite corner as the hybrid. The hybrid never took its eyes off him, cowering more and more into its little corner.

So he leaned out and grabbed a tennis ball, pawing it from one hand to the other across the room.

At first the hybrid just stared, and he felt like an idiot. Then the hybrid slowly relaxed, watching the ball. Very slowly, very tentatively, the hybrid inched closer on all fours until he was just a little out of reach, watching the ball go to and fro.

“Does it look like fun?”

The hybrid whined, backing away a little.

“Shhhhhhhh. It’s alright. I won’t hurt you.” He smiled gently. “Here, I’m going to roll the ball to you now. Can you catch it?”

Its tail seemed to come up a little from in between its legs.

“Okay. Here we go.” He gently let the tennis ball roll from his palm: he made sure to do it softly, and the ball stopped right in front of the hybrid. “…now, you roll it back to me.”

Gently the hybrid got down and sniffed it. After a few moments of contemplation, he nudged it with his nose, rolling it back.

“Good boy!” the man praised, catching the ball in both hands. “Wow, look at that! You did that! Do you want to try it again?”

After they had carefully rolled the ball back and forth a few times the hybrid’s tail was entirely out from between his legs: it wasn’t wagging to and fro, but it was a start.

“You’re doing so well,” the man smiled. “…what’s your name, little one? Hmm?”

The hybrid sat there, mute.

“…do you _speak_ at all?”

No answer.

“Can you _hear_ me?”

At this the hybrid whined a little, ears twitching.

“Okay, you can hear me. That’s a start then, isn’t it?” He looked at the forlorn hybrid for a moment. “…how would you like to come back with me?”

It didn’t seem to understand.

“I’ll keep you warm, feed you your meals, play with you, walk you. I’ll buy you… _clothes_.” The hybrid was only wearing long boxer shorts. “And toys. And you can stay in my house with me.”

It cocked its head to the side a little, staring for a moment. He had big, large brown eyes. They were beautiful, really. With long, luxurious eyelashes.

“…I don’t know a lot about taking care of hybrids. But I’ll do my best. You can help me along when I get it wrong. What do you say, hmm? Would you like to have a home?”

At the last word its ears perked up and it smiled, letting out a single joyful bark, its tail flying up happily.


	2. Coups

“Well, that’s that. Now… you have to choose a name for him.”

Jihoon looked at the hybrid that was cowering under a blanket on all fours. “…he won’t tell me.”

“Well, choose something for now. You can always change it online.”

He sighed. “Yeah. Uh, let’s call him… Coups.”

“Coups?”

“Sure. Why not.” It took a while but once the documents were all filled out and the hybrid’s chip had been updated, Jihoon received his documents all in a neat, clear folder.

“You have to get register him for a collar as soon as possible,” Samuel instructed. “Here are your official documents, your license documents, proof of ownership… your license card’ll be ready to pick up by the weekend.”

“Thanks, Samuel. You’re really doing me a solid here.”

“You’re the one that’s taking the illegal hybrid off my hands.”

Jihoon looked down at the mostly naked boy on the floor. “…yeah.”

“Good luck.”

Jihoon stuffed all his papers under one arm, heading for the door. The boy shuffled over the floor behind him, like a real dog, but once he could see the outside world he whined, tail between his legs again.

“Oh, hey, you don’t have to be scared.” Jihoon crouched down. “…my car’s right in front here. See? The big green one.”

The hybrid – Coups – looked up.

“So here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to go out there and open the door. There’s a nice soft blanket on the back seat, yeah? So all you have to do is run from here all the way in and on top of the blanket. Can you do that?”

The hybrid whined a little, looking up, but slowly pulled his tail out again to hang behind him normally.

“Okay. Now you stay here until I call you. Okay? Good boy.” Jihoon walked out briskly to the car, unlocking it: he leaned in to the back seat, re-arranging the thick fleece blanket he had bought specifically for his new dog. Then he left the car door open so the blanket was in sight before returning to the pound.

“See that blanket, Coupsie?” Jihoon smiled. “That’s where you’re going to go now. Can you do it? You’re a very big pup, I can’t carry you.”

Coups backed up a little and with three short bounds across the sidewalk he jumped up into the backseat of the car on all fours.

It was, without a doubt, a very strange thing to see a hybrid walk on all fours. Generally, they preferred walking on two legs like humans – usually they sat on all fours, though.

“Good boy!” Jihoon smiled, closing the car door with a bang that caused the hybrid to curl up in the opposite corner. Unfortunately, his new boss didn’t really notice, simply getting into the driver’s seat and spinning off.

Jihoon’s reckless driving had scared the poor creature beyond measure: when Jihoon finally opened the door, Coups was huddled between his two blankets, shaking in the corner.

Jihoon had to dig very deep into his reserve of patience. _Maybe getting a dog wasn’t such a great idea after all_.

“Come on, boy. Out you come.”

The hybrid made a very definite _no_ , shaking its head profusely.

“…what’s wrong? Why are you so scared?”

It didn’t answer.

“…do you want me to carry you up?”

That was exactly how Jihoon ended up piggy-backing a fully grown hybrid dog into the elevator and up to the seventh floor.

It took a few moments, but when Seungcheol hit the floor of Jihoon’s apartment, the young man noticed just how inappropriate it was for a dog, much less a hybrid. He hadn’t bought any of the necessary items yet – and maybe it was just as well. He moved down the hallway and opened a door. “This is the guest bedroom. Or, well… I guess it’s your room now.”

It wasn’t a very big room: it had enough space for the queen-sized bed and a small closet, but that was about it for furniture. The bedspread was a plain pale blue.

“…okay, it’s not much,” he admitted sheepishly, walking in and sitting down on the bed. “…but we can do it up real nice. With whatever you like.”

The hybrid sat in the doorway, confused.

Jihoon patted the bedspread. “This is yours. This is your bed. You want to come up here?”

He shuffled over the floor a little, sniffing a little before putting a hand on the bedsheet inquisitively.

“Yeah, come on up! It’s okay. You can come up.”

Coups backed up and launched himself onto the mattress in one go. At first his elbows wobbled a little, surprised by how soft the bed was, before he sat down gently, pressing his palms against the mattress carefully.

“Is it nice?”

The hybrid’s tail began to wag very, _very_ gently.

“Yeah, is it nice boy?” Jihoon had to smile. The hybrid’s little face was so cute with his round dark eyes and innocent expression: he was hard to resist. Jihoon gently put his hand beside Coups’. “…will you let me pet you?”

The hybrid pressed his nose down to Jihoon’s hand before sliding his entire head under it.

Something inside Jihoon melted on the spot. He gently wisped his fingers through the hybrid’s hair, curling his fingers to tickle behind its large puppy-dog ears.

Coups’ mouth was open, tongue _almost_ sticking out: he closed his eyes and rubbed up against his new owner’s hand.

“Wow, look at you. You’re a really pretty puppy, aren’t you?” Jihoon cooed. “…well, you’re a bit big for a puppy, but you know what I mean.”

It took Coups a moment but soon he was rolling around on the bed happily, tail wagging.

Jihoon laughed, watching him. “You’re a little cutie, aren’t you?”

A little smidgen of pink crossed the hybrid’s cheeks.

“Hey boy, listen. I’m going to go out for a bit to buy you some clothes, okay? You have to stay inside though.”

It took him a moment but then the hybrid let out a loud whine: his hands pounced on Jihoon’s unhappily, whining desperately. Both his tail and his ears were now twitching unhappily.

“Heyyyy, boy.” Jihoon’s hand moved to caress his ear. “It’s okay, I’ll be back before you know it. You won’t be alone for very long at all.”

He whined even louder, pressing his face into Jihoon’s side.

“Don’t worry, really. Spend some time getting used to your new room. Explore the house. I’ll be back before you know it.” Jihoon got up, his new hybrid at his ankles instantly: it took a few tries but eventually Jihoon managed to close the front door behind him with a relieved sigh.

The man quickly made his way to a department store: in general, he knew, hybrids wore human clothing tailored to fit their tails. There were, of course, stores especially for hybrids, but they were usually online and Jihoon didn’t really want to wait around with Seungcheol naked.

Shirts were easy: he bought his new companion two dress shirts and some t-shirts, and two pairs of jeans. He’d have to tailor them, but that could be managed. It wasn’t that hard to rip a hole and then hem it. Once all the clothes were in the car and he was on his way home, his phone went off.

“Hello?”

“Is this Mr. Lee Jihoon?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“This is the police.”

Jihoon hit the breaks at a red light, just in case.

“Sir, we seem to have found your Dog hybrid named Coups running naked in the streets.”

“Oh, God. He was supposed to wait at home!” The butt of Jihoon’s wrist hit the steering wheel in frustration. “Stupid dog.”

“Is it possible for you to come pick him up?”

“Yes, of course. I’m on my way to the station now.” That meant making an illegal u-turn, but the man didn’t care: he simply needed to pick up his pet, _now_.

Before entering the building he stuffed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt into a bag, taking it along with him: he was directed to a holding room where an officer sat on one side of a steel grey table and Coups was huddled up on a steel chair on the other side. The moment Jihoon appeared the unhappy hybrid flew out of his chair and huddled up behind his owner’s leg, terrified, shaking with his tail between his legs.

“Thank you, officer,” was the first thing Jihoon could say. “I would have been so worried if he’d been roaming the streets.”

“He doesn’t speak,” the officer grunted, obviously unhappy.

“…yeah, that’s a thing.” Jihoon looked down at his pet before turning to the officer again. “I’m sorry for all the trouble he caused.”

“Why isn’t he dressed?”

“…he’s. New. I only got him this morning.”

“He’s fully grown.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you have papers to show that he’s yours?”

“Uh, yeah – here.” He handed over the documents to the officer before crouching down. “Coupsie, why didn’t you wait for me? You were supposed to wait at home.”

The hybrid keened unhappily, fingers digging into Jihoon’s knee. He was shaking all over, but wouldn’t answer, just blocking his face into his owner’s legs.

“Coups, seriously. I told you to wait. Hm?”

“This all looks like it’s good.” Jihoon took the papers back from the grumpy officer. “Please make sure your hybrid is suitably clothed and collard the next time it goes out.”

“Yes. Yes of course. Uh, officer, can I stay here a moment to dress him? Before we leave?”

“Yes, I suppose so. Knock on the door when you want to leave.”

Jihoon turned, pointing to the chair to make his hybrid pet sit on it. When the door finally fell closed he tutted, pulling out a blue dress shirt. “What a grumpy old officer. Come on now. You need to get dressed.” It was obvious the hybrid hadn’t worn button-up shirts very quickly: Jihoon ended up doing all the buttons, and ended up helping the poor pup into his jeans as well.

Coups whined, gripping his tail through the fabric.

“I know, it must be uncomfortable, but you’ll have to deal with that until we get home. Alright?”

He nudged his owner a little, resigned to his fate: together they were able to walk out of the police department otherwise unscathed.

Now that Coups was clothed, however, he was able to come along with his owner anywhere, and that meant that the man could grab his groceries without worrying about a new hybrid in the house all by himself.

It was only upon entering the supermarket that Jihoon realized that his diet really wasn’t that healthy, and that now that he had a hybrid, he was going to have to oversee some major dietary changes. “Damn it,” he mumbled, grabbing a cart. “I loved those marshmallows. Okay, Coups, what kind of food do you like?”

“Oh my God, he’s _so_ cute!”

Jihoon turned to where a tall man with dark hair slicked back off his forehead was rushing over from the fresh sushi section.

“Oh, look at him!” The stranger glanced at where Coups was sitting in the shopping cart. He gently put his hand next to the hybrid, letting him sniff gently before petting the small pup. “You are a cutie, young man!” It took him a moment. “Hello?”

“He, uh… he doesn’t talk much,” Jihoon mumbled. “…he’s new. I just got him today. He’s very scared of strangers.”

“Oh!” It took the stranger a moment, staring at the owner, then the hybrid. “Oh, I understand. You must be new! Hi, I’m Jun.”

“Jihoon.” They shook hands.

“Sorry I attacked you like that. He’s beautiful.”

“He sure does have a pretty face.”

“I have two of my own. A lazy kitty called Jeonghan and a cute ram, Minghao.”

“Wow, _two_ hybrids? I didn’t even know ram hybrids were a thing.”

“They found me, more than I found them.” Jun smiled at the thought. “And as for rams, they’re not usual, but they are out there. Minghao should be around here somewhere. I think he’s gone to the fresh produce. He’ll come back with way too much fruit, you’ll see. He’s a glutton for sugary fruit.”

Jihoon almost smiled. The stranger was a very good-looking man with sharp features and beautiful golden skin, and a very kind honesty about him.

“…is he your first?”

“Yeah. I actually…” Jihoon lowered his voice, leaning in. “I got him at the pound.”

“…what?” Jun leaned in, whispering as well. “The _pound_? They put a hybrid in there?”

“They didn’t know what else to do with him. They were afraid the government would find him and… well.”

“Then he’s very lucky you managed to pick him up.”

“Yeah. Originally I went in looking for a Rottweiler or something, but then… he just took breath away, I guess. I’ve never had a hybrid before.”

“You’re a newbie… must be hard.”

“Yeah. I’m a bit out of my league here.” They both straightened up, returning to a normal volume. “…I just hope I don’t mess up too badly.”

“…do you know what would probably be good? I mean, only if you want to. You two should come over to my place for play sometime. I mean, he seems gentle enough, right?”

“Probably couldn’t even hurt a fly.”

“Minghao will like him. He’s a bit shy, but he likes meeting other hybrids. Jeonghan’s a lazy princess of a cat, but he only pretends to give himself airs. He just _looks_ like he’s royalty. He’s very warm on the inside. You should definitely come over, I can help you out with stuff – I mean, only if you like. I realize how weird this must be for you.” The stranger gave a sheepish smile. “If it’s weird and awkward for a stranger to be-”

“No! No.” Jihoon held up his hands. “To be honest, I think I need all the help I can get.”

“Great!”

“Juuuuun,” a little voice whined, walking up. “They didn’t have any sweet potatoes!”

“Minghao, come here sweety.” Jun put his arm around a small boy with blond curly hair. He had sheep’s ears pointing down on either side of his head and small curly horns at the front in between his curls. His expression was one full of innocence. “This here is Jihoon and this down here is uh…”

“Coups.”

“Coups.”

“Hi!” The little ram waved a moment at Jihoon before peering down into the card, bleating softly, a small sheep’s tail wagging behind him. “Hi there! I’m Minghao!”

Coups crawled back a little, even though he was sniffing intensely.

“Minghao, Coups is a little scared.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Minghao ducked down to crouch, his face at level, staring at Coups between the bars of the cart. “Hi there. I’m sorry I scared you.”

“…Coups is coming over to play someday.”

“Really?!” The hybrid’s eyes began to sparkle, glancing up.

The two owners laughed, and exchanged phone numbers: they shopped together, with Jun giving advice on what to buy, how much to buy, and what meals were acceptable for a dog hybrid. He seemed to be a real expert on the hybrid matter, and Jihoon was more than a little grateful for his advice.

When the shopping trip was over, Jihoon and Coups went back home: the hybrid stayed by his owner every step of the way, eventually whining and nudging when Jihoon ignored him, washing some vegetables in the kitchen.

The owner sighed heavily. “Don’t mind me. I’m just upset you didn’t stay here when I asked you to.”

The hybrid gently backed away, and then came back, putting a hand on Jihoon’s thigh.

“…I was scared you wouldn’t come back.”


	3. Dangerous toys

Jihoon stopped what he was doing, dried his hands on a tea towel and crouched down to sit on his knees in front of his hybrid. “What did you say?”

Coups lowered his head so much his face wasn’t visible, obviously expecting a reprimand. “…I was scared you wouldn’t come back.”

“Why wouldn’t I come back, hm? It’s my house, after all. And now it’s your house too.” Jihoon gently raised a hand to muss Coups’ hair softly. “…don’t worry about me not coming back. I’ll always come back.”

“…I don’t like being alone.”

“I’m sorry. I should have stayed with you.” He continued to pet Coups’ head gently. “But you know, sometimes I will have to leave, and you can’t come with me. That’s just how it is. And you’ll have to get used to that. But… for now, I’ll stay with you as much as I can. Alright?”

Coups nodded his head, almost all the way down to the ground now.

“Good. Do you want to pick your head up now?”

He shook his head.

“…what’s wrong?”

“…aren’t you angry with me?”

Jihoon smiled. “…no. Not really. It was a misunderstanding, right?”

Coups looked up suddenly with wide eyes. He nodded a tiny bit.

“Then there’s nothing to be angry over.”

“…really?”

“Really.”

“…master!” Coups rushed for his owner suddenly, bowling him over: the hybrid’s long, strong arms folded around Jihoon’s torso and he nuzzled his face into his stomach happily. “Thank you!”

Jihoon chuckled a little, lying on the kitchen floor. He petted his hybrid’s shoulder twice, a little awkward. “Come on, get up.”

Coups retreated quickly, sitting up. The jeans had long been discarded and his tail wagged about freely.

“You want to tell me your name now?”

The tail stopped for a moment, then started again. “…Seungcheol.”

“Seungcheol, hm? It suits you. What a handsome name.”

The tail just kept wagging happily.

“Are you going to grow anymore?”

The hybrid shook his head.

“Okay… do you ever stand and walk on two feet?”

He deliberated this for a while, whining, looking at himself and mumbling before looking up. “…I used to. I don’t know, now.”

“Do you want to try?”

“It’s really high up there.”

Jihoon broke into a broad smile for a second. The hybrid’s charms were difficult to resist. “I guess it is. If you want to try, I’ll help you.”

“Master is so kind.”

“Hey.” Jihoon petted his head again when he nuzzled up. “How about you try calling me Jihoon?”

The look on his face was quizzical. As if a huge question mark was stamped on his face.

“Well, calling me master all the time is a bit… different. After all, you are part human, right? So how about you just call me Jihoon?”

“Ji…hoon?”

The man nodded.

“Jihoon!” The tail began to wag again, thumping against the floor.

“God, you’re _adorable_.” The words were almost contemptuous: the hybrid was so endearing that it made Jihoon a little jealous. “Look at you. You’re so cute.”

“I-is that bad?” Seungcheol’s ears twitched to and fro as he looked down, tail slowing.

“No, it’s not bad. But I totally understand why Jun came over to us today.”

“That was the man with the dark hair, right?”

“That’s right.”

“I like him. He’s nice. He smells trustworthy.”

“I’m sure he is. I like him too.”

“Who is the sheep?”

Jihoon chuckled, standing to finish the vegetables again. “Minghao is part ram.”

“…he’s cute.”

“He is. Big wide eyes.”

Seungcheol’s hands grabbed Jihoon’s trousers. “…not cuter than me.”

“Is that what you’re worried about?”

Seungcheol nodded.

“…you’ve seen some very unhappy things, haven’t you?”

He didn’t answer that in any way. Not even with a twitch of his ears.

“Listen, Seungcheol… you’re _my_ hybrid now. I’m responsible for you, and I don’t shirk my responsibilities. You’re my companion. You and I belong together from now on. So don’t worry about me not coming back, or liking others better. _You_ are _my_ hybrid.”

The tail came up wagging again and he perked his ears up happily, staring up at Jihoon like he was a god.

 

The two had dinner together – lasagne and plenty of vegetables – before Jihoon started up his laptop to do some online shopping. It was just as well he had two well-paid jobs, so he could afford it hybrid-specific clothes. Figuring out the measurements was a bit of a hit and miss, but they got there together eventually.

“Now I think it’s time for bed,” Jihoon mumbled, looking over at the small silver clock on the mantelpiece. “After all, you had a big day today.”

Seungcheol clocked his head this way and that for a bit. “Bed?”

“Yeah. Come on, I’ll tuck you in if you like.”

With that the hybrid bounded off to his own bedroom, rolling happily on the sheets. He was the very picture of a happy puppy when his owner came around the corner, smiling as he leaned in the doorway. His hybrid was, without a doubt, too cute to be true.

Seungcheol stopped, perking up his ears and looking at his owner. “Why’d you do that?”

“Do what?”

“That thing on the door.”

“…it’s called _knocking_.” Jihoon stood there simply. “When you knock on a door, it’s polite. It’s like asking a question, _can I come in?_ It’s so that you don’t walk in on somebody when they’re dressing or something.”

“Oh.” Then Seungcheol pulled a broad grin and continued rolling about happily.

“Okay, okay,” Jihoon laughed. “Time for the puppy to get to bed. Have you cleaned your teeth?”

“What’s that?”

“Come on. I have a lot to teach you.”

The instructions on brushing teeth were long and loud: Seungcheol had more fun unwrapping the spare toothbrush than he did actually brushing his teeth. He desperately disliked the strong mint of the toothpaste Jihoon used, and he wasn’t a big fan of foam in his mouth, either. Then the puppy was taught how to clean his face (soap was a very new concept to the hybrid and Jihoon was not looking forward to explaining how baths worked in the morning) and then Jihoon tucked him into bed.

“Good night, Seungcheol.”

“Where are you going?”

“To bed, as well.”

“Oh.”

“Sleep tight, Seungcheol.”

“Sleep tight, maste-… Jihoon.”

 

It was barely midnight when Jihoon first woke up. At first he thought it was just wind, or maybe the neighbours: but then the scuffling sound became louder and sharper. The source was somewhere in the hallway, and soon there was an unhappy whine accompanying it.

Seungcheol sat in the hallway, head hanging down, whimpering to himself.

“…what’s wrong?” Jihoon asked sleepily, crouching down to vacantly pet Seungcheol’s head.

“…lonely.”

“You got lonely?”

He whined.

“…alright, alright. You can stay with me. But only for one night!”

Seungcheol’s tail began to wag furiously.

“Come in then.” Jihoon closed the door behind his hybrid and worked himself back into the bed sleepily. Seungcheol simply lay there in the dark, cuddling close. “…no wagging your tail in the night.”

“…okay.” Slowly, the tail stopped under the sheets.

 

Waking up next to your brand-new hybrid was, by all means, a little weird. Seungcheol’s ears twitched in his sleep, but his face was completely relaxed, stuffed into the pillow like it was a marshmallow eating his head. He was curled up in the foetal position, fingers twitching now and then.

“Hey,” Jihoon whispered. “Wakey wakey. Rise and shine, sleepy head.”

Seungcheol jerked out of his sleep and backed up very suddenly, keening loudly.

“Hey! Hey. It’s okay.” Jihoon made sure he didn’t move. “It’s okay.”

After a quick shudder Seungcheol came closer, relaxing a little more. The fear drained slowly from his eyes and he snuggled up, pressing his face into Jihoon’s throat softly.

“H-hey,” the man chuckled. “That tickles. Bad dream?”

“Mm.”

“It was just a dream. Can’t hurt you now.”

“Mm.”

“I’m going to go have a shower. I’ll just be in the next room. You… wake up. Okay boy?” Jihoon mussed the hybrid’s hair a moment. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good boy.” Jihoon gripped a towel and some clothes off a chair and went to take a shower, trying to wake up and get used to the idea that he now really did have a _hybrid_. Well, for sure, it was what he wanted. A trusted companion that was sturdy and wouldn’t die passively on him.

He came back in a simple jeans-and-t-shirt ensemble, freezing where he stood in the doorway.

Seungcheol played with a cold, black item in his hands, staring at it. “Jihoon! What’s this?”

“Seungcheol,” Jihoon said measuredly, “put that down.”

“But what is it?” The oblivious hybrid turned the object in his hands excitedly. “Is it a toy?”

“Seungcheol, I am telling you to put that down,” Jihoon repeated slowly.

“If it’s a toy, is it for me Or for you? Do you like toys?”

“Seungcheol.” He now easily let anger slip into his voice. “Put. It. Down.”

When the hybrid finally clocked his owner’s expression he instantly slipped into a whine, ears drooping. He very gently put the object down on the mattress.

As swiftly as possible Jihoon dove for the covers and swiped the gun away from his hybrid, unloading the bullets instantly. “Never touch this!” the man snapped angrily. “Never, ever touch this! If you find anything like it, never ever touch it! You could have killed yourself, you idiot!”

Seungcheol fell entirely still.


	4. Jun's House

The hybrid began creeping backwards until he was huddled in a corner, tail between his legs, shaking. He was so scared he couldn’t even whine.

Jihoon took a very deep breath, calming himself before loading the gun up with bullets again and slipping it under his pillow where it belonged: then he sat across from his hybrid and sighed again. “…I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

This changed nothing.

“…that item you found isn’t a toy. It’s a very, very dangerous thing. You could have really, really hurt yourself with it. You scared me a lot when you were playing with it. I didn’t want either of us to get hurt. I really am sorry for yelling at you.”

The hybrid let out a loud keening noise, scuffling against the wall as if he could burrow through it to get away.

“…hey. I’m sorry. I know you’re scared. I was stupid to yell at you.” Jihoon worked hard to soften his voice, lowering it almost to a full whisper. “I’m sorry, Seungcheollie. I don’t want you to be afraid. It’s alright. I’d never hurt you.”

The hybrid stopped scrabbling, staring at his owner with one wide, fearful eye.

Jihoon curled up into an inoffensive little ball. “I’m just going to sit here and be sorry for yelling at you. I won’t move. You can come over if you like.”

It took him a long time to decide to move, and even then his actions were slow as he shuffled hesitantly towards his owner. Jihoon was true to his promise and didn’t move, so Seungcheol took all the time he needed, sniffling about his human before finally ducking his head under Jihoon’s folded hands and pressing his face into Jihoon’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Seungcheol. I shouldn’t have yelled. Will you forgive me?”

“M-hm. O-of course.”

“I’ll try not to yell again.”

Seungcheol moved, nudging up against his owner’s neck.

“…is it okay if I pet you?”

“Yes.”

Slowly Jihoon moved his hands up to play with his hybrid’s hair and caress his ears gently. “Wah, that’s better. That’s Cheollie.”

“I’m sorry,” the hybrid mumbled, his deep voice rising a little. “I didn’t mean to be bad.”

Jihoon sighed. “You weren’t bad, I guess. I just didn’t explain it properly. I’ll do that now, hm?” He continued to play with Seungcheol’s puppy ears. “What you were holding wasn’t a toy. It was a gun. Guns are very dangerous. I was really scared you were going to hurt yourself. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Seungcheol sat back. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay. Don’t play with it again, alright?”

“…okay.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For agreeing not to play with it.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that.”

“It’s okay.” Jihoon gently caressed Seungcheol’s ears: they were so soft and velvety, it was hard to stop. “I think it’s time I taught you something new.”

“New?” He perked up, tail thumping to the floor.

“I’m going to teach you about _baths_.”

“Baths?!” The puppy was delighted with the word, even though he had no idea what it meant.

“Yeah, baths!”

As soon as the hybrid realized he got to play around in a vat of warm, soapy water, he was a little more than _delighted_ – he splashed around in it, giggling loudly, plopping in and out.

“Alright, alright, alright. You’ll get us both drenched.” Jihoon chuckled, handing the puppy a washcloth. “You take off all your clothes and you rub your body down with this, okay? It gets the dirt off.”

He cocked his head, a soapy bubble sliding off his hair.

“Here.” Jihoon pulled out the hybrid’s forearm and rubbed it gently until his skin became a few shades lighter.

All in all, bath was a great experience for the hybrid: between water, soap and shampoo he had the time of his life, and didn’t mind the drying off process either: he was dressed again in a shirt and a clean pair of boxer shorts, since Jihoon couldn’t foresee them going out anywhere, and simply plopped down happily in the kitchen.

“How about trying to stand up today?”

“Eh?” The puppy’s tail didn’t stop wagging. “Really?”

“Sure, you’ve got legs just like anybody else, right? Most hybrids walk standing up. You can try, right?”

“…I guess.”

“Here, let’s first get you sitting like a human.” Jihoon pulled the hybrid’s arms up until his butt was in a kitchen chair.

Seungcheol’s hands gripped the corner of the chair between his legs shakily, blinking. “Whoa… dizzy… it’s really high up here!”

“And you’re only sitting,” Jihoon grinned. “It’s okay. Stay that way for a while. I’ll grab some breakfast. I hope you like honey loops. After that we can work on standing and walking.”

“…what’s that? Honey loops?”

“Oh, boy,” the owner grinned to himself. “You’re gonna like it here.”

 

 **Jun:** Hey, Jihoon! It’s Jun. From the store.

 **Jihoon:** Hey! I was going to text you later today.

 **Jun:** How’s your Coups getting used to being owned?

 **Jihoon:** Reasonable. I think. I don’t exactly have anything to measure it by. He talked though, finally. Told me his name is Seungcheol.

 **Jun:** Oh that’s nice! Communication is good. Do you want to come over for coffee someday? Minghao wants to see him again. He could wrap anybody around his little finger.

 **Jihoon:** He sure is charming. We’d love to come over. When are you free? I have the week off to spend with him so…

 **Jun:** How about tomorrow? I have the day too.

 

“…you’re kind of… big.”

“Am I?”

“Yeah.”

The two were walking: Jihoon was holding his hybrid’s hands in his own, pacing backwards, leading his puppy-dog around the room.

“I’m only two months old you know.”

“That can’t be. You’re fully grown.”

Seungcheol shrugged, stumbling a little over his own big feet. “Can we stop now? I’m tired.”

“We can take a break, yeah.” Jihoon guided his hybrid to a chair. “Outside you’ll have to do your best to walk upright like the other hybrids do.”

“Why?”

“People aren’t used to hybrid’s walking on all fours.” Jihoon considered it for a moment. “You might get hurt.”

“…I don’t like hurt.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt, either.” Jihoon grabbed one of the pairs of jeans again, hemming away at a tail hole: it was almost done. “…tomorrow we’re going to go visit Jun and Minghao.”

“Really?” The hybrid’s tail began to wag slowly.

“Yeah. It’ll be good for you to have some buddies to play with.”

“Play?!” The tail wagged harder, hitting the back of the chair.

“Be careful there, you’ll bruise yourself.”

 

Seungcheol slept in Jihoon’s bed again that night. He would have gotten kicked out except that he was already fast asleep when Jihoon came back from brushing his teeth and he didn’t have the heart to wake up the huge, twitching puppy-boy.

In the morning, Jihoon helped his hybrid dress – Seungcheol was more comfortable with clothes and walking now – and bathe and clean his teeth before making breakfast.

Seungcheol wasn’t very pleased with the car again though.

“What’s got you so upset about cars, Cheollie?”

“…don’t like,” the hybrid scowled, curling up in a corner on the backseat. “…too much.”

Jihoon shook his head slowly: he’d come to realize that when Seungcheol was uncomfortable he spoke in vague half-sentences. It was probably a good thing, for now – an indicator of when the hybrid needed reassuring – but he could only hope it would wear off with time.

They stopped to grab coffee and donuts. These were items placed in the passenger seat and made Seungcheol lean out of his hiding spot, sniffling.

“Those are for later,” his owner reprimanded kindly. “Not now.”

“But it smells nice.”

“Later.”

 

Jun lived outside the city in a small bungalow with a front lawn made up entirely out of flowers. The hyacinths were strong as the two walked up and for a moment Jihoon was a little worried he had the right house, since Jun didn’t seem the type to do much gardening.

But the man arrived at the front door with a bright smile on his face, ushering the guests in. “Come on in, you guys. Glad you could make it.” He closed the front door behind them and called out. “Minghao! Jeonghan! They’re here!”

Jun’s living room and kitchen weren’t separated: they were a long horizontal hall, brightened by huge windows looking out into a back garden. Minghao sat on a poof in the middle of the living room, staring intensely at Rubik’s cube, while a long, slender figure was draped across the couch, long black hair covering his face.

“Boys!”

Minghao jumped out of his reverie, staring up a moment before springing up. “Coups!”

The puppy sat down on all fours, tail wagging cautiously.

“…the lazy princess on the couch is Jeonghan, of course,” Jun grinned. “Jeonghan! Say hello!”

The cat swished its tail and pulled up a little, pulling back his black hair to reveal a very slender, sleek, delicately featured face. “Hi,” he yawned.

Jihoon smiled. “We, uh, brought coffee and donuts.”

“Awesome!” Jeonghan suddenly became animate, jumping off the couch.

“Ah-ah-ah!” Jun almost shouted, making Seungcheol scrabble away. “Kitties don’t get caffeine, you know that. You _can_ have a donut if you like.”

Once everybody had been outfitted with donuts, the hybrids were sent off by Jun to play in the garden. Seungcheol was particularly interested in this thing called _grass_ and Minghao was more than happy to show him how Frisbee worked. Jeonghan simply followed languidly.

“…he really is an adorable pup,” Jun grinned, watching from the living room.

“He’s sure as hell got _me_ wound around his little finger.” Jihoon sipped his coffee a little, staring at the hybrid, rolling around in the grass. _Thank God I didn’t get him a white t-shirt_.

“…adorable.” Jun smiled. “So, first-timer, how’s your hybrid experience going, anyway?”

“He keeps falling asleep in my bed,” Jihoon chuckled. “I don’t mind so much, since he’s new, but every day it might be…”

“Well, hybrids _are_ more needy and clingy than most people,” Jun answered with a shrug, biting into his donut. “And they form very strong attachments to their owners. Jeonghan and Minghao sleep in my bed with me all the time.”

“What, all three of you?”

“Yeah. It’s a bit crowded but neither of them will budge.”

Jihoon had to grin at the idea.

“So. How do you feel about a little hybrid lessons?”

Jihoon gave the man a grateful look, following him to sit down. “Honestly, you don’t know _how_ grateful I am. I genuinely know nothing about hybrids.”

“Well, let’s start at the bottom and work our way up, hm?”

“Right.”

“First of all, in spite of popular belief, hybrids are _not_ part human, part animal.”


	5. Good Boy

Jihoon sat there with a confused look on his face. “I’m sorry, _what_?”

“It’s a common misconception. You look at them and you see a human body with animal extremities and some animalistic behaviours and think they are some kind of human-animal pet. The first thing you need to know – if you want to be a _kind_ owner – is that they aren’t animals. Every hybrid was once a very normal, entirely _human_ embryo. The very first hybrids had animal DNA spliced into their genes when they were still just a clump of cells, but any DNA sample will confirm they are, entirely, human.”

Jihoon blinked. “I didn’t know that.”

“No, the government has made it _quite_ clear how they want hybrids to be perceived. The information is all out there in libraries and on google, but people simply believe what they hear on the streets or in the news.”

Jihoon thought about that a moment. “You don’t approve of the government’s way of handling the hybrids.”

“Do _you_?”

“No! Goodness, no.”

“They are going off this idea they got from a group of whacko scientists, that hybrids aren’t in control of their animalistic nature, and if they are not controlled by full, pureblood humans, that they pose some kind of dark threat to the community. They need to be _owned_ like they’re furniture or something. If they’re not owned and stamped with a chip they’re taken away and _destroyed_. The government is committing the mass murder of hundreds of people who can’t help being what they are, just because.”

Jihoon stared out the window where Seungcheol was bounding around in the grass.

“To be honest, Seungcheol probably had lots of siblings. I can imagine they’re all dead now. They get incarcerated. Incinerated. The government lops them into a cremation room. My ex-boyfriend worked for that division when it was first started. He said the hybrids walk in _alive_. They’re tricked in, unsuspecting. And burned alive. All to control what they see as a ‘breeding problem’.”

Jihoon shuddered. “That’s horrible.”

“It’s holocaustal,” Jun answered coldly. “I’m a biochemist, so I have a very deep understanding of how the situation works. I’m studying part-time to become a vet, too. Apparently only certified vets are allowed to practice on hybrids, despite the fact that they’re all essentially human. It leads to great mispractice and I’ve seen some owners come to me, sobbing themselves to pieces with disfigured hybrids who were botched by a vet who didn’t know what they were doing.”

“God,” was all Jihoon could answer.

“Yeah. I know it all sounds harsh, but I’m telling this because you need to understand that Seungcheol is essentially human.”

“He doesn’t always _seem_ human, what’s that about?”

“The splicing is only meant to introduce physical components of animals into the body. For some hybrids that’s exactly what it does. It gives them ears and a tail and the ability to make certain noises. For others, unfortunately, it also introduces certain hormone levels that can change a hybrid’s emotional state. For instance – Minghao? You’d barely know he was a hybrid. Other than ears and tail, he’s your average nineteen-year-old guy. Except that he can’t go study microbiology like he wants, because as you know, the government has declassified all hybrids as animals and pets. However, Jeonghan’s character is extremely cat-like. He needs plenty of sleep, he’s a little sassy, he prefers meat, and he’s a very curious kitten.”

They watched the trio of hybrids outside: Jeonghan and Seungcheol were playing around with each other, with Minghao on the outlook.

“I guess it’s the same for Seungcheol.”

“Clingy, needy, needs a lot of attention and love. Sounds like a golden retriever to me,” Jihoon smiled.

“I would have figured you for a cat person.”

“I like both,” he answered non-committedly. “It was interesting, though. I went to the pound looking for a dog and came back with a hybrid.”

“Well, hybrids are more dependable. The longer he’s with you and gets used to you he’ll become self-sufficient, like my boys are. I could be gone for a month and they would be able to keep things running: pay the bills, go shopping, make their own food. They’re not dependent on me, except they have to be tied to me and live with me in order to escape the government’s… well, raids.”

“Wow.”

“Once you manage to raise them a little, they’re fine on their own. Like I said, they’re just humans. Seungcheol might be clingier, more affectionate, because he’s a dog though. The only dog hybrids I ever met were…” Jun suddenly fell still, a shadow passing over his eyes. “…governmental, untrained vets do terrible things. They enjoy experimentation too much.”

Jihoon shuddered.

“I’m guessing you don’t like the idea of Seungcheol being-”

“No, I don’t,” Jihoon answered quickly. “I don’t know much about hybrids, or about _him_ , but I do know that he deserves a happy, good life. Looks like he’s been through a lot. He deserves a little happiness.”

“I’d say so.”

“Is there anything I need to know?”

“Well, Seungcheol does seem very young, mentally.”

“Told me he was two months old.”

“That’s ridiculous. Hybrids grow at the same rate humans do.”

“Yeah. Maybe he has some kind of memory loss.”

“If he was badly abused, that’s no surprise.”

The two sat for a moment with coffee while Seungcheol was taught how to play Frisbee. The hybrid was more than delighted with the invention of this new game.

“I’m going to have to buy him one of those, and I live in an apartment,” Jihoon sighed with a smile.

“You can take him out for walks,” Jun chuckled. “…any other questions?”

“Uh… digestive tract?”

“Human,” Jun smiled.

“If they’re human then… well, I’ve heard stories.”

“Yes?”

“…about people getting them… spayed and neutered.”

“Spaying and neutering is what you do to animals, Jihoon. Castration is what you do to humans.” Jun shuddered unhappily. “I’ve seen too many male hybrids in extreme pain with bad infections from where their items used to be, and the females…”

They both winced at the idea.

“That’s horrible.”

“There’s this idea that hybrids breed uncontrollably, but that’s not true.”

“It’s not?”

“No. The first scientists that created them tried to breed them and succeeded for a while, creating many hybrids. Unfortunately, many of those were inbreeds, and well… inbreeding doesn’t go well, in humans or animals. You get some messed-up versions. I think it’s inhumane.” Jun took a deep breath, continuing in a lighter tone. “Very few hybrids breed at all.”

“…then where do the new hybrids come from?”

“There _are_ a small number of scientists that continue to create new hybrids, to enlarge the gene pool and reduce the risk of the great inbreeding incident. They are usually unsanctioned, or sanctioned but only create when somebody has a specific request. I know of too many people who use hybrids as trophies rather than companions, or even pets.”

“…I see.”

“Then of course, there’s always the problem of sex.”

Jihoon’s eyes widened a little, turning slowly. “…sex?”

“Well, despite their resistance to actually breed, many hybrids have cycles of fertility, a sex drive and libido just like any human. Unfortunately for many hybrids, a lack of genuine sexual release can cause medical problems, and even severe pain. Those of us owners who actually care for our hybrids as humans – well, it’s our duty and responsibility to help them in that respect.”

Jihoon froze. “So… you… when they…”

“Yes, I have frequent relations with both Jeonghan and Minghao.” Jun smiled softly, eyes seeming to glow a little. “I love them both very dearly. They love me, and each other. I suppose it’s what they call polyamory. I don’t just do it for their sakes, either: they could both refuse if they liked, but the three of us seem to manage very well together. If I’m not around to satisfy, they help each other. We are, all three, truly dependant and independent of each other at the same time.”

Jihoon sat there, flabbergasted.

“You _will_ eventually have to fulfil Seungcheol’s needs, or find somebody he can fulfil them with. But I can imagine that would be difficult, as he’s weary of strangers.”

“Uh…”

“Don’t worry. With Seungcheol’s current state of mind, I’m sure his libido is quite low. You won’t have to worry about it until he can function like any adult human.”

Jihoon shuffled in his seat.

“Don’t worry,” Jun encouraged. “If you ever have any questions and stuff about it, you can always come to me.”

“You do seem to be an expert.”

“Like I said, I’m a biochemist studying to be a vet. I’m in my last year, now. The safety and health of my hybrids is the most important thing in the world to me. If either of them were to get hurt, or taken away… I don’t know if I’d be able to live with myself. They’ve taught me how good and happy hybrids are. I daresay that little pup of yours will do the same for you. It’s hard to resist their charms.”

“Sure is.” Jihoon finished his coffee. “Well, at least Seungcheol’s potty trained.”

Jun laughed. “You should have _seen_ the trouble I had with Minghao. He was the second – but I got Jeonghan when he was fully matured. His last owner died of old age. Minghao was just a child at the time. He couldn’t have been as old as four. He found himself on my doorstep in nothing but some pyjamas, holding a small pink blanket in one hand and an old teddy bear in the other. With these teeny, tiny horns and big, wide eyes.”

“…sounds so cute,” Jihoon admitted.

“He was. The most adorable little hybrid. But…” Jun sighed deeply. “When I took him to get chipped, they found out his DNA wasn’t Korean, it was Chinese. And getting an unidentified Chinese hybrid chipped is an administrative disaster, let me tell you. So I had to send him to friends of mine in China to escape the raids while I was going through bureaucracy. It took us fourteen years to get license to bring him back and have him chipped as mine.”

“Fourteen _years_?”

“Yup. We flew to China often though, Jeonghan and I. Maybe three or four times a year, to see him and make sure he was being treated well. The Chinese government is just as strict as ours about what they call the breeding pest, but luckily hybrids can be easily hidden in rural towns.”

“So really, you didn’t get him until he was a teenager.”

“Yeah. Seventeen years old he was, shaking frightened. They put him in a _crate_ for the flight. When he got here and finally realized he was here with us to stay, I think he cried a whole day straight. Poor guy. He went through a lot.”

“He must have been happy.”

“We all are, now. I can imagine Seungcheol’s happy with you, too.”

“It’s only been a few days. Give it some time. But he’s very ready to be happy, that’s for sure.”

“He deserves it. Have you gotten him any toys yet?”

“Not yet. He’s still working on walking on two legs. I was on a hybrid website the other day, though, and they had a toy section, though I was kind of concentrating on getting him clothed.”

Jun chuckled with a nod before looking up when Jeonghan came back in. “What’s up, babe?”

“Hungry.” Jeonghan’s black kitten ears twitched on his head. “Do we have any fish left?”

“Yeah, there’s still some tuna in the fridge.”

“Thanks.” Jeonghan froze for a moment before bounding over and planting a quick kiss on Jun’s lips before hurrying to the kitchen and searching for his meal.

“If you don’t eat it all, cover it again!” Jun warned. “I don’t want the fridge to stink of fish.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“If it does, you’re cleaning it this time!”

“Okay, okay.” Jeonghan sauntered back out into the garden, a piece of tuna hanging out from between his lips.

Jun shook his head with an endearing smile. “Little shit.”

 

Seungcheol and Jihoon were invited to stay for dinner – home-made pizza. Minghao was, apparently, a master chef when it came to pizzas. After dinner Jun helped to pick out some toys for Seungcheol and then it was time for Jihoon and his hybrid to go back home.

“We can come back though, right?” Seungcheol looked up with a begging look. “I can come back?”

“Well, if you’ve been nice and Jeonghan and Minghao like you, I’m sure they’ll-”

“Thursday!” Minghao answered. “You should come back Thursday! We’re going to have a party.”

“What’s a party?”

“It’s… having fun, playing games, eating food,” Minghao answered after a moment. “It’s to celebrate Jeonghan’s birthday!”

Seungcheol looked up at his owner.

“That’s really nice, Minghao. I’m sure Cheollie would love to come. Right?”

Seungcheol nodded enthusiastically.

 

By the time they got home, it was more or less time for Seungcheol to go to bed. He brushed his teeth by himself and got changed but when he resurfaced from the bathroom, his owner was still fully clothed, a bag on his shoulder.

“Jihoon?”

“…I need to go out, Cheollie.”

“…but it’s late!”

“I know.” Jihoon came close and gently patted Seungcheol on the head. “Listen, I have a little job I need to do. It won’t take long. A few hours, tops.”

“Hours?!” Seungcheol’s ears drooped unhappily. “You’ll come back, right?!”

“Of course I’ll come back.”

“…don’t leave me here. Please?”

“Hmph.” Jihoon rubbed his temples a moment. “Okay, I have an idea.”

Seungcheol perked up as his owner searched for a small, black rectangle.

Jihoon opened up his iPad and selected a random Disney movie off his Netflix account. “While I’m gone, you can watch this movie. It’s like a story, but you get to see it _and_ hear it. That way you won’t be lying around waiting for me to come home, you’ll be too interested in the movie. Alright?”

Seungcheol sniffed unhappily, laying his head on Jihoon’s shoulder. “Please don’t go.”

“I _promise_ you I will be back before the movie is over.”

Seungcheol whined.

“Cheollie, sit down.” Jihoon sat with him. “You’re a big boy, you know that? You’re a really good boy, too.” This caused a tail to wag happily, so he was obviously on the right course. “The bestest boy. Now I need you to be a brave boy, just for two hours. And obedient. I need you to promise me that no matter what, you won’t go outside searching for me.”

“…I promise.” He wasn’t very happy with it.

“You’re my good boy,” Jihoon praised, scratching behind Seungcheol’s ear before he stood up. “Before the movie is over. I promise.”

Seungcheol got into his owner’s bed and sat with the iPad on his lap. “…okay.”

Jihoon patted the sports bag on his back. Yes, the P90 semi-automatic was still in there, together with some of his other guns. And from the sound of it, a couple of extra magazines, too.

“…see you later.” And with that, Jihoon stepped out of the apartment, and started running.


	6. Collared

He was waiting in the middle of the living room, his tail thumping to the ground as soon as he heard footsteps coming close: when a key inserted into the lock he automatically scrabbled at the door.

Jihoon walked in, a hand pressed to his side. When he struggled through the doorway and stood against the closed door, blood began to drip on the floor.

Seungcheol sniffed at the blood instantly, ears flattening to his head. He let out a little unhappy growl. “What happened?!”

“I’m sorry,” Jihoon coughed. “…I’m late.”

“You’re bleeding!”

Jihoon smiled weakly, wincing as he struggled over to the bathroom, sitting down on the lid of the toilet. “Listen, Cheollie, can you do me a favour?”

“What?”

“…under the sink in the kitchen there’s a big red box, could you get it for me please?”

The hybrid bound off on four legs, too concerned to be bothered with the two-leg rule, and quickly came back with the handle of Jihoon’s first-aid kit in his mouth, dropping it in his owner’s lap. He whined loudly, pressing his face against Jihoon’s legs as the man opened the box up, quickly gripping a sterilized needle and thread.

“Master, what can I do?”

“Shhhh for a bit, Cheollie. I need to concentrate.” It was a painful experience, but for sure not one he hadn’t had before: the man stitched himself up and bound the wound in gauze and bandage. “There, now.”

Seungcheol was in acute distress: his forehead was pressed up against Jihoon’s calf so harshly it was actually hurting, his fingers scrabbling hopelessly against the tiles. Jihoon slowly managed to pick Seungcheol up and put him in the bathtub before joining him, letting the hybrid lay on his lap. “Hey, shh it’s okay.”

“Master, master you’re bleeding,” he whimpered, pressing his face into Jihoon’s chest. “Blood, blood, so much blood.”

“Shhhhh. It’s alright. I’m okay now. I’m not bleeding anymore.”

“I can _smell_ it.” The hybrid’s voice was haunted, hoarse and high: Jihoon gently petted his back.

“…I’m sorry, Cheollie. It’s alright. There is nothing to be afraid of. You’re here with me now, you’re safe, I’m safe… I’m sorry I was late. I came home as fast as I could.”

“Stop bleeding.”

“I’m trying. Shhhh, it’s alright now.” The man’s warm hands rubbed comforting lines up and down Seungcheol’s back. “It’s alright now. I’m going to be alright, and you’re going to be alright.”

The hybrid whimpered, keening a little.

“…how was the movie?”

Even though there were tears in his eyes, his tail slowly began to wag from one side to the other. Almost as if it were slow-motion.

“…it was nice.”

“Yeah? Did you learn anything from it?”

Seungcheol thought about it. “…sisters are cool. Don’t lock your door.”

Jihoon frowned. What Disney movie had he played for his hybrid? He wasn’t paying attention the first time.

“And sometimes, rocks are cool.”

Jihoon had to chuckle at that, even though he had no idea what it meant.

“Am I funny?” The tail wagged harder.

“Yes you are.” Jihoon smiled. “Were there any songs in the movie?”

“Yeah!” The tail was going strong now. “Um, there was this one… um, how did it go…” The hybrid began to sing in a low voice. “How’d it go, how’d it go, I don’t remember the words, how’d it go, how’d it go-”

Jihoon broke out into a loud laugh. “Frozen! You watched Frozen. Now I understand.”

Seungcheol smiled up.

“Did you like it?”

“I liked it! There was this little guy called Olaf. He was cool!”

“I like Olaf, too.”

“He’s happy!”

“He is.”

“I want to be happy like him, too!”

Jihoon cupped Seungcheol’s face. “And I’ll do everything I can to help you be that happy. I promise.”

 

They eventually moved to the bed: Seungcheol wouldn’t let his master sleep alone so they slept together again, Jihoon taking care to stay off his wounded side. The hybrid was certainly not happy with the smell of blood in the air, and his owner could only guess at what kind of memories it brought back for him.

But the morning brought both of them relief: Jihoon had stopped bleeding, and they were able to have a very nice breakfast together.

Jihoon offered no explanation of why he was late or how he got wounded, and Seungcheol never asked. The hybrid was more than happy to sit with his bowl of his honey loops and croon out Frozen tunes all morning.

The next few days were spent in peace: Seungcheol’s clothes and toys all arrived, and he was taken out to the mall and the park with his owner. The two spent plenty of time together, and Seungcheol was simply a very happy puppy.

“Where are we going? Huh? Huh?” His tail wagged happily, chin leaning on Jihoon’s seat. The hybrid was getting used to being in the car, and even enjoying it, especially when the window was down.

“ _We_ are going to buy you a collar. I keep forgetting. All your other papers have come in, so this is the last think we need to do.”

“A collar?”

“M-hm.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a little leather thing that goes around your neck. I already had a silver tag made for you. It’s so that if you’re outside, people will know you’re mine. Like Jeonghan and Minghao both wore. Remember?”

“I remember.” He seemed to think about it for a bit. “…so will that make you my master?”

“Aren’t I already?” Jihoon smiled softly. “It’s not so much, master. It’s more like… we will belong together from now on. And people will know that you belong with me.”

That made the tail wag a bit more, but Seungcheol pressed his face into Jihoon’s neck. “…I want to belong _to_ you.”

“Eh?”

“…please? Please, master? Jihoon? Please?” He sniffled through his master’s hair. “I want to be your good doggy.”

“Of course you’re my good boy, Cheollie, but you’re not really a doggy. You’re a man, like me.”

“Please? It makes me feel better. If I belong to you.”

Jihoon took a deep breath and shrugged. “Well, whatever you prefer, Cheollie.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Yes!” The tail was whipping to and fro now. “I belong to you!”

“Cheollie, I’m driving here.”

“Right.” He moved back down and sat in the car like a human. “I’m a good boy. I’m _master’s_ good boy.”

Jihoon had to smile a little to himself – the hybrid really was a precious boy.

There was an artisanal pet shop in town and it was laden with all kinds of collars – thin collars, thick collars, in all colours. Some came with studs, others with ribbons, or charms, or small sound boxes: there was a lot to choose from.

“Cheollie?”

The hybrid was staring at a large cage: inside there were at least four or five tiny puppies yipping up at him.

“Aw, how cute.” Jihoon crouched down to see them too.

“They’re like me!”

“Almost.”

“They’re all brothers and sisters. Do I have brothers and sisters?”

“I don’t know. Don’t think so.”

The tail stopped.

“Come here, Cheollie, I need you.” He led his hybrid away from the puppies and over to the wall full of collars. “You can pick your own, if you like.”

“My own collar?”

“M-hm. Whichever collar you want you can have.”

Seungcheol stared at the wall for a very long time before reaching up and picking up a hybrid collar. It was a pink, lacy thing, with a black band in the middle and a little bell on it. “…this one’s pretty.”

“…you want that one?”

Seungcheol nodded, unable to take his eyes off it.

“…you don’t want something a little more… manlier?”

The hybrid cocked his head. “Is there something wrong with this one?”

 _Of course a hybrid has no concept of masculinity._ Jihoon blinked a bit. “It’s just that, some people – and even hybrids – might laugh at you. It’s a very pretty collar, I agree, but I think it was made for girls.”

“…but it’s still pretty!”

“…tell you what.” Jihoon picked up a plain black collar. “I’ll buy you two. That way you can wear the pretty one at home, and if you’re scared others will be mean, you can wear this black one. Okay?”

“Okay!” The tail started to wag happily again.

“Okay! That’s my boy.”

“Your _good_ boy,” the hybrid stipulated.

Jihoon chuckled, going to pay for both the collars. “My good boy.”

Seungcheol insisted he wear the pink collar before even leaving the store, and said goodbye to his puppy friends before walking out. The hybrid was practically beaming with pride, chin stuck out just a little to show off his pretty new collar.

“Now we need to go pick up the tags I-”

Suddenly there was a shout from the sidewalk: both the owner and hybrid stopped in front of their car to turn.

“Filthy mongrel!” There were three of them – young men, students by the look of them, all with thick muscles and annoying grins. One of them whistled at Seungcheol. “You’re a fucking beast! You shouldn’t be alive!”

“Get fucked!” Jihoon shouted back, throwing up the finger.

Then they began to cross the road.

“Seungcheol, get in the car.”

“Master I-”

“Do as I say and get in the car.”

Seungcheol dove into the backseat and closed the door, peering out the window with wide, scared eyes.

“Hey, pipsqueak. You got something to say to us?”

Jihoon held his arms closely to his body. “Leave my boy alone.”

“Yeah? He’s an _abomination_. All those fucked up animals are. What are you going to do about it if we tell it exactly what it is?”

Jihoon threw a punch: the man landed on the street, knocking his head to the ground, out cold.

“Why you little-”

It didn’t take Jihoon long at all to incapacitate them: one almost lost his genitals and the other went flying through the front windshield of the next car. Then the young man simply got in his car and drove away, stopping two blocks over to get into the back seat and hug Seungcheol tightly. “Shhhhh, it’s okay. It’s okay. We’re both alright.”

“W-why did they say those things?”

“…some people are very mean, Seungcheol.”

“I-I’m not a bad boy!”

“No. No you’re my good boy.”

Seungcheol whined and scrabbled, pressing his face into his owner’s chest, trying to hide from an evil that was there no longer. Jihoon simply petted him and sang Frozen songs to him until he relaxed a little.

“My good boy.” Jihoon cooed a little, playing with Seungcheol’s hair and cupping his face until the dark caramel-brown tail began to wag to and fro gently again. “You’re my pretty boy. Now… are you ready to go to Jeonghan’s party?”

The hybrid thought about it and nodded a little.

“Yeah? Are you ready?”

“Ahuh!”

“Are you sure you’re ready?” he teased.

“I’m ready!”

“Are you suuuuuure?”

“I’m ready, I’m ready!” Seungcheol’s tail was wagging so hard it must have hurt.

“I don’t think you’re ready yet-”

“I’m ready!” Seungcheol began to pull himself up on his owner’s shoulders, then lowering himself, whining and moving quickly up and down, getting far too excited. “I’m ready, I’m ready please take me! Please! I’m ready!”

Jihoon chuckled and rubbed Seungcheol’s hair. “Alright, alright. Let’s go, Cheollie.”

“We’re going!” He let out a sudden bark, sharp and short, stars twinkling in his eyes. “We’re going!”

“Yeahhhh, we’re going.” Jihoon shook his head slightly to himself as he scrambled to get back into the driver’s seat. “You’re too easy to excite, Cheollie, you know that?”

Seungcheol whined, still making tiny movements and retreats excitedly in the back seat. “I’m going to see Jeonghan again!”

“Yeah.”

“He’s a pretty kitty! Minghao said so.” Seungcheol sat upright like a puppy, looking out the front windshield. “I think he’s pretty too. Super pretty.”

“Yeah, you like him?”

“I like him!”

Jihoon grinned, taunting. “Do you _like him_ like him?”

“What’s that mean?”

Jihoon laughed at the innocent way the hybrid’s ears cocked forward. “Never mind, precious. Strap in.”


	7. Raids

Seungcheol’s new tags were a new commodity that he was taking full advantage of. The other hybrids crawled around to peer closer, inspecting the silver plate that bound Seungcheol’s name and Jihoon’s together. The hybrid sat there with his chin up, a huge smile plastered on his face, soaking up all the glory and attention.

Meanwhile, Jihoon was getting to know this new club of hybrid owners. `

Seungkwan was the youngest: a chubby-faced seventeen-year-old. He was still in high school and lived with his parents, but Vernon had been a gift when he was a boy. A _gift_. The way rabbits are given as gifts at Easter. Luckily he had managed to bond so strongly with his hybrid that he now fell under Jun’s care as his protégé, and coming to see him and his hybrids at every opportunity.

Vernon – the hybrid that went along with the young boy – couldn’t be much older than him. He was an arctic wolf hybrid: a little wild, but mostly just a little spacey and dorky. He was, in fact, kind of similar to Seungcheol, in that it was easy to distract or excite him. He had wavy brown hair but large, white-grey ears and a bushy white tail to match, and pretty hazel eyes.

The other hybrid that was carefully getting to know Seungcheol was named Wonwoo. He was a Chinchilla hybrid, with very thick hair and large round ears. He wore perfectly round spectacles and oversized sweaters that covered his hands entirely: he was quiet and cautious, but smiled freely without restraint.

 _His_ owner was Seokmin, Lee Seokmin, who was probably one of the most charismatic man Jihoon had ever met. He had a face like it was chiselled from a rock by God himself, with eyes that crinkled up when he smiled, and biceps thicker than Jihoon’s head.

The owners were standing around the kitchen in various poses and positions, drinking: Jun was pouring himself a bourbon, Seokmin had white wine, Jihoon had red, and Seungkwan… well, he was stuck with apple juice. At least for another few years.

“It should probably be mentioned,” Jun grinned, “that Jihoon here is a first timer. It’s his first hybrid. How are things getting along?”

“Good… I think.” Jihoon savoured the flavour of his wine for a moment. “At least I don’t have to potty-train him.”

“Oh, God.” Jun laughed. “I know how you feel. Jeonghan came to me already fully grown, but Minghao… for those first few weeks he was with me as a toddler… that was something else.”

They all had a bit of a chuckle over that. Luckily, Minghao didn’t overhear.

“Jihoon, what do you do, anyway? I forget to ask every time.”

“I’m a journalist. Well.” He nodded his head to and fro a bit. “More of a columnist, really. I work from home a lot, and I only go in when my editor gets whiny.”

“Wow, _literature_. That’s so cool.” Seokmin grinned broadly. “Wish I could do that.”

“Why, what do you do?”

“I’m a fitness trainer.”

“Look at him,” Seungkwan pouted. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Jihoon stared at the thick, rolling bicep that was winking at him from under Seokmin’s sleeveless shirt. “…yeah okay, that should have been obvious.”

“Here, they’re super hard.” The fitness trainer lifted his shirt to show off beautiful bronze skin stretched taught over an eight pack. “You can feel it if you like. Hard as a rock.”

Jihoon tentatively reached out to brush his fingertips over Seokmin’s abs. They were, as promised, rock hard. “Wow.”

Suddenly there was a growl: Seungcheol popped out of nowhere, somehow standing straighter on two feet than ever before, towering over his owner, glaring at Seokmin for a moment.

“Cheollie?” Jihoon slowly retracted his hand. “What’s wrong?”

Slowly Seungcheol moved, pressing his face into Jihoon’s neck, letting out a small whine. “…nothing.”

“Are you sure?” Jihoon scratched him behind the ear a little, causing his tail to relax and wag a bit.

“Yeah,” he said.

“…okay.”

“We’re going to play outside.”

“Okay.” Jihoon watched his hybrid head for the door. “Don’t get grass stains on your new white cap!” Once the hybrids were out in the garden, Jihoon sighed with a smile. “…stupid kid.”

“I wonder what that was all about,” Seokmin mumbled.

“He’s a little… clingy.”

“Vernon too,” Seungkwan piped up. “I know how you feel. He can be wild sometimes and at others he won’t accept anything less than full devotion and snuggling.”

“Don’t act like you don’t like it,” Jun teased.

“I wish Cheol had a wild side,” Jihoon grinned, staring out the window at where the hybrids were playing with a Frisbee. “He just wants to snuggle all the time.”

“Again,” Jun smirked, “don’t act like you don’t like it. I wish Jeonghan would be a little more affectionate than he is and snuggle some more.”

Seokmin simply shook his head with a little sigh.

“Oh, right. Seokmin, I wanted to ask you a favour.”

“Yeah?”

“Jihoon here is kind of… new to the whole hybrid thing. I was hoping, if you can at all… you could talk to him about the raids. Explain them. You’ve never been in a raid, have you, Jihoon?”

The small man looked up at the fitness trainer in awe and shock. “…you’ve been through a raid?”

“…it was the worst experience in my whole life.”

“You don’t have to tell me if it’s difficult.”

“…but if I get the chance I’ll tell everybody and anybody. If my story can save the life of even one hybrid, one single person… then all of it is worth it. Nobody deserves to go through the pain that I went through.”

Jihoon had to gulp a little at that.

“Tell me, what do you know about the raids?”

“Not much. Just that they’re there to take away hybrids.”

“Wow, you _are_ a greenie,” Seungkwan interjected.

Seokmin took a deep breath. “…I don’t like to talk about it around Wonwoo, for his sake. He was only little when it happened.”

Seungkwan quickly skipped off to make sure the garden door was closed. “We’re safe. He won’t hear it. Don’t worry.”

Seokmin put down his wine glass. “…the raid unit’s standing orders are to capture wild hybrids that are unchipped, and bring them to a declassification center in the middle of the city. But… more often than not, that’s not what really happens.

“They don’t discriminate. They don’t care if a hybrid is chipped, licensed, or collared. They’ll take them all without prejudice. They’re not allowed to enter homes without search warrants, but they do. They’re not allowed to behave aggressively towards owners they meet, but they do. They’re not allowed to take away hybrids that are obviously owned or at least claimed… but they do. Now, if you manage to physically fight them off in your home, that’s one thing – they can’t bring you up on charges, since they’re not supposed to be in your house – but if they manage to take your hybrid, that’s it. Game over. In order to get access to their declassification facility you need to go through a string of paperwork, this organization, that branch… by the time you’ve gotten the papers you need to get your hybrid back, they’ve already been incinerated in one of the ovens.”

Jihoon winced.

“They offer recompense. For the hybrid that’s lost. Do you know what the recompense is for a fully grown hybrid?”

Jihoon slowly shook his head.

“60.000 won. A hybrid’s _life,_ to them, is worth about the same amount as a microwave. They aren’t trying to eradicate any breeding problems or stray animals, they are attempting systematic, regular _genocide_ of a species.”

Seokmin took a long draught of his wine.

“…I was only – what, sixteen? Yeah, about sixteen. Wonwoo was, uh… five years old. I lived by myself, not with my parents. The day they came for Soonyoung was the worst day of my life.”

An unhappy silence fell in the room at simply how _haunted_ Seokmin sounded.

“They come in swat gear, you know? Full black outfits. You can’t even see their faces. So that you can’t pull them up out of a line-up if they hurt you, or your hybrid, or anything. They don’t carry guns – that would be too much – but they have Tasers.

“I was home, you know? And you’d think, if I was home, I should have been able to stop them.” He bit his lip. “Soonyoung was a tiger hybrid. He was the most beautiful creature in existence. I know most hybrid owners say that about their hybrids, but… he really was amazing. And not just physically, you know? He loved music. He loved to dance to it. Especially when he was making dinner, or fucking up soufflés. He enjoyed life. I’ve never seen anybody enjoy life the way he did. With his pretty blond hair and happy eyes…

“They grabbed him first and pulled him straight out of my apartment before I knew what was going on. I told Wonwoo to stay, I went _after them_ , but then they were hauling Wonwoo out after me. God, the _panic_ that flows through a sixteen-year-old kid whose entire life is being sucked out the door is amazing. I ran after them, _screaming_. Soonyoung was screaming back. Tears running down his pink little face. Wonwoo was crying too. He didn’t understand. He was too young.

“They Tasered him in the street as he resisted. I kept screaming _they’re mine, they’re mine, I own them, I own them!_ but it didn’t stop them. They Tasered my little tiger over and over until his stripy little tail went limp and he stopped moving.

“I managed to grab onto Wonwoo as they passed me. He was only five. He was a _little boy_ , a child. I gripped onto his body with all my might, screaming at them. Before I knew it we were alone in the street: me clutching his tiny, tiny body to mine as Soonyoung was driven off. I can still see his tiny face in the window in the back of the truck. His hands pressed up against the glass.” The man’s voice had fallen to a whisper. “I can still hear him screaming for me. Every night. Every time I close my eyes, he’s there. I knew him from the beginning. From when we were both so young. He was my entire life and in a matter of maybe five minutes… it was all over.

“I spent months trying to get a permit just to get into their declassification center. I don’t know how long I searched, gripping Wonwoo to me with all my might. I couldn’t bear to leave him alone, not for a single second, for months. My tiny child. But by the time I’d arrived… it was all over. Soonyoung had been murdered, dead, long gone, ashes swept away. And not a day goes by when I don’t think _if only I’d been stronger._ That’s why I became a fitness instructor. The next time they come for my boys, I’ll be ready. They won’t take Wonwoo too. _They won’t take Wonwoo too._ ”

A long silence commenced in the room as Jihoon was left to flail, thinking about what he’d just heard.

“A _raid_ ,” Seokmin whispered, “is the most _horrific_ , most _painful_ , most soul-destroying thing you could ever experience, Jihoon. I pray to God that you never make it through one. The only reason I was able to keep on going was Wonwoo. He was so tiny. He didn’t understand where Soonyoung had gone to. He had the tiniest little fingers, little fingernails… I was so close to giving up. Just letting the darkness have me. But Wonwoo had this helpless look in his eyes. He wouldn’t be okay if I disappeared, too. So I struggled through it.

“But by God, I wish I could stop it from ever happening ever again. To anybody. Even bad owners. No hybrid deserves that fate.”

“You have a strong love for Wonwoo,” Jun eventually said, his voice calm and low. “You couldn’t have done more. You’re nothing short of an honour to know. But that story always gives me chills.”

Seungkwan shuddered himself. “Let’s talk about something else.” And with that he stole Seokmin’s wine glass right out of his hand and downed what was left in it.

“Seungkwan!” Jun hissed, taking away the glass immediately. “Your mother is going to skin me alive.”

Seokmin broke out of his dark reverie to laugh at the two of them: Jihoon noticed it was a very obvious, stage-play attempt to lighten the mood, but he wasn’t about to ruin it. The tension in the room had almost become unbearable.

It was against the law for any hybrid to be outside – be it in a garden or even on a balcony – after the sun had gone down, so when it began to get dark, the hybrids all trooped back indoors.

They had pizza together and cake after Jeonghan blew out his candles, and then they all settled down for a movie of the birthday boy’s choice.

Jihoon sighed a little as he sat down, staring at the empty DVD case on the floor in front of Jeonghan. “Aw man,” he complained to Seungkwan. “I can’t get Seungcheol to stop singing the songs from the _last_ Disney musical he watched.”

The hybrid turned with a ferocious passion in his eyes. “Olaf is _great!_ ” he announced, as if the fact were absolute. The look on his face dared his owner to question him.

“…I love Olaf too,” Jihoon reassured him. He made sure Seungcheol’s back was properly turned before rolling his eyes.

 _Once you’ve heard a wolf, a dog, a cat, a sheep and a chinchilla sing along to Lets Get Down To Business, you really have heard it all,_ Jihoon thought. But by the way Seungcheol’s tail was wagging it was obvious Mulan was going to be his next favourite.

When the movie ended, it was time to go – the youngest two hybrids were starting to get very sleepy and nobody wanted to stay out too late, just in case. The raid story had Jihoon a little on edge.

Seungcheol was actually so exhausted by the time he got home, he made no effort to go to bed whatsoever, except for the fact that he landed in Jihoon’s bed with a soft _flump_ noise.

“Cheollie,” his owner warned him, stepping out of the bathroom. “…you have your own bedroom and your own bed to sleep in.”

“Don’t wanna sleep alone.”

“Cheollie you-”

“The nightmares don’t come back when you’re here to fight them away. They’re scared of you. Because you’re my master. You’ll protect me.”

Jihoon couldn’t answer to that. “…go brush your teeth.”

“But I don’t wanna.”

“Go brush your teeth or I’ll kick you out of my room, I swear.”

The puppy grumbled a lot about it, but slinked off anyway: he came back in his pyjama t-shirt with minty breath and sleepy eyes.

When they settled into bed, Jihoon thought that would be the last of it.

“Master?” His tail was already swishing under the sheets.

“…yes, Cheollie?” Jihoon sighed.

“…I’m sorry. You were asleep. Go back to sleep.”

“I’m already awake again. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Cheollie,” Jihoon warned.

“Okay, okay!” The hybrid nuzzled up against his owner affectionately. “…I saw Jeonghan do this thing with Jun, and I was wondering… I – it looked like fun and I want to do it to my master too.”

Jihoon couldn’t even open his eyes, he was so tired. “What?” he managed to whisper.  

Seungcheol leaned in and pressed his lips against Jihoon’s.


	8. With Me, No Matter What

“…uh,” was all he could say.

Seungcheol seemed to lean in for another kiss, so Jihoon had to come into action: his hands pressed against his hybrid’s shoulders, stopping him.

Seungcheol’s tail swung lightly in the darkness as he cocked his head in question.

“Uh, Cheollie… what are you doing?”

“I’m giving master a kiss!”

“…Cheollie…”

“Did I not do it right? Teach me how! I want to do it right!”

“Whoa, whoa, Cheollie!” Jihoon practically sprang out of bed, pacing in his room. “This is, uh… this is. Uh.”

The tail swept down, ears drooping a bit. “…you… don’t want me?”

“Cheollie, a kiss is… it’s!” The poor man was a little lost. “You can’t just kiss me.”

The whine he let out was one of sad embarrassment: he worked back and hopped off the bed unhappily. “I-I’m sorry,” he mumbled in between whimpers. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“…it’s okay,” Jihoon mumbled, too tied up in his own shock to notice his hybrid’s distress. “You just… don’t understand.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

“It’s alright, Cheollie. Cheollie?” Jihoon scowled at the open door. “Seungcheol, please come back in here.”

The hybrid nudged part of his face around the door. He looked positively guilty, face low to the ground. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“It’s okay, boy. Come inside. I’m not angry, you know.”

“Y… you’re not?”

“No. Not with my good boy.”

He couldn’t see a tail yet, but there was a light whirring sound to let him know it was up and running again. “I’m still a good boy?”

“Yes.”

“ _Your_ good boy?”

“Yes.”

He slowly returned, jumping up on the bed. He still kept his head low. “Does… master not like me anymore? Is that why I can’t kiss you? I want to be a good boy…”

“Heyyyy.” Jihoon’s hands moved to caress his hybrid’s ears. “You _are_ a good boy. You just… well, the way Jeonghan and Minghao are with Jun… it’s different from us. And didn’t I tell you to call me Jihoon?”

“…I like master more.”

“Hey, who’s a good boy.” Jihoon scratched behind his hybrid’s ears in an attempt to make him comfortable again.

“How are they different?”

“Well… they love each other.”

“But I love master too!” Seungcheol looked up with large, round eyes. “I love master lots and lots!”

“I don’t mean it like that. They love… differently.”

“How differently?”

“It’s difficult to explain.”

Seungcheol simply sat up and waited.

“…just trust me. It’s different, the way they are.”

“…so I can’t kiss you?” The disappointment in his tone was so strong it seemed to echo all around the room.

“…you can, I guess. Just not on the lips. See, you’re probably best kissing me on the cheek.”

The tail sprouted up suddenly in a very enthusiastic wag. “I can?! Do it on the cheek?!”

“Yeah, sure.”

The hybrid launched forward, smacking his lips on Jihoon’s cheek: the owner was almost literally bouldered over, gripping his hyper hybrid who was busy pecking his cheek over and over.

“Okay, alright,” Jihoon chuckled. “That’s enough, Cheollie.”

“But I love you master!” The puppy looked up, beaming. “I love you, I love you!”

“Hush now, it’s late.” Jihoon smiled gently. “Here, I’ll give you one back, see?” He gently pecked his hybrid on the forehead – it made him go absolutely silent, his little face a bright red. “Now it’s time to sleep. Okay?”

“…okay.” The hybrid settled under the sheets, still the colour of a tomato.

“Goodnight, Cheollie.”

“…good night, master.”

 

 

The hybrid was sitting up on the floor, ears pricked up, his shaggy tail wagging to and fro lightly before he turned around to his master, jumped up and hurtled at him, hugging him tightly. “Master! You’re home! I missed you so much!”

“…Cheollie, I was _downstairs._ Getting the _post_.”

“I still missed you!” His tail swept from one side to the other, clinging to Jihoon happily. “I love you, you know, master!”

Jihoon rolled his eyes a little and patted the hybrid’s shoulder awkwardly. “Well, the last toy has come in.”

“Another toy?” The tail swept a little harder. “What is it?”

“It’s a book.” Jihoon handed over the large, heavy parcel to his hybrid, setting his keys down on the countertop. “Here, open it.”

Seungcheol ripped off the brown paper eagerly: he’d been spending a lot of time with Minghao and Jeonghan lately, really getting used to being a proper hybrid.

“Grimm’s… F-feh… Fairy… Tales,” he sounded out slowly, reading the large letters on the front. “Grimm’s Fairy Tales? What’s that?”

“It’s stories.”

“Stories?”

“I’ll read you one later. What do you want for lunch?”

“I want master’s love!” Seungcheol made a heart with his hands that caused his master to laugh a bit. “What?!”

“You. You’re coming up with these unexpected things every day.”

“Is it bad?”

“No…”

Seungcheol chuckled to himself and sat down again in front of the television to finish his episode of Sailor Moon – what it was done he cocked his head and turned to the kitchen where Jihoon was creating cold pasta salads. “…master?”

 “Yeah, Cheollie?”

“…why did you get me?”

“What?”

“Why did you get me? Like… adopt me. From the bad place.”

Jihoon put down his spoon and moved to sit down with his hybrid. “You still think of it as a bad place, huh? Were they mean to you?”

Seungcheol just shrugged his shoulders. At times like this he wore an expression that made him look a hundred years old, a hybrid far from the happy-go-lucky Cheollie he normally was. “Guess not. But I didn’t like it. I was scared. I thought I’d get hurt.”

Jihoon slowly reached out to tousle Seungcheol’s hair. “You know, I know the people that work there. They’re really good people. I’m sorry it was so scary for you, boy. I don’t think anybody there would have hurt you. Someday we can go back, and I’ll introduce you to Samuel, and maybe you can take some of the dogs for a walk. How’d you like that?”

“…I guess.”

“What’s on your mind, hmm?”

“Still wondering. You wanted a _real_ dog, right? Not some half-made abomination like me. You wanted a real dog that plays and isn’t human. So why would you pick me?”

“Seungcheol.” Jihoon’s voice suddenly took on a very dangerous tone, his hands forming cuffs around his hybrid’s wrists. “Don’t you ever, _ever_ talk about yourself that way again. Do you hear me? You’re not half-made and you are _certainly_ not an abomination. You are _precious_. You hear me?”

The hybrid whined, ears floating down a little. “…yeah.”

“Cheollie.” One hand moved up to cup the hybrid’s face. “There is nothing wrong with you. You are precious. You wouldn’t call Minghao an abomination, would you?”

The hybrid quickly shook his head, looking almost shocked at the idea.

“And you wouldn’t say that Jeonghan was some kind of half-made creature, would you?”

“No way! Jeonghan is great!”

“And Vernon? Is he something wrong?”

“Vernon’s my friend!”

“See? So what makes you any different?” Jihoon scratched behind Seungcheol’s ear. “If they’re hybrids, and you’re a hybrid, and they’re great for being hybrids, doesn’t that make you great too?”

He had to think about it a while. “…does it?”

“It does.”

“…I like that.”

“Good.”

“But why’d you get me?”

“…well, partially, you seemed like a good choice. It just felt right at the time. And… if somebody else had found you… well. I wouldn’t want something bad to happen to you.”

“…why did you want a dog in the first place?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I like stories.”

“It’s a sad story.”

“ _Try me,_ ” the hybrid pushed.

Jihoon took a deep breath and sighed for a moment, moving to get more comfortable. “Cheollie, do you know what a _boyfriend_ is?”

He thought about it. “It’s like, when two boys are kissing on the lips and touching in funny places and dating, right?” He beamed and preened a little when he saw Jihoon’s face. “Jeonghan taught me about it.”

“I see.”

“Go on.” He nudged his owner.

Jihoon tried to stare at the carpet. Looking at his hybrid’s deep dark eyes with long eyelashes would just make this way more difficult. “I had one. For… a very long time. Since high school, actually. And I thought… I thought he would be the one. You know? We’d been together for about… eight years? Nine? That’s a really long time. We went on dates and we, uh, like you said, kissed… we lived together… I loved him. I loved him so much. You can’t imagine… what I would have done for him if he had asked… what I would have _given_ him…” The man cleared his throat a moment. “…and suddenly one day there was a suitcase in the hall. _Jihoon_ , he told me, he said _Jihoon, not once have you ever said you loved me. You never said I love you to me. You never do anything to show that you love me. I don’t think you **can** love. You’re like a machine, and I’m done._ And he just… _left._ ”

At the last word Seungcheol got so upset with the atmosphere his master’s story created he pulled himself into Jihoon’s lap.

“Suddenly he was gone, and I had to get used to everything by myself again. Being alone. And… I guess what he said stuck with me. Maybe I can’t love. Maybe I am a machine. Somebody said that pets were a good way to express feelings… so I guessed a dog would be beneficial, you know? And take my mind off it. Maybe a dog could teach me how to love.”

Seungcheol whined again and when Jihoon finally looked at him, the hybrid was tearing up.

“Don’t cry, Cheollie.”

“But it’s sad.” He sniffed. “You’re sad. I don’t like it if you’re sad.”

“When,” Jihoon corrected.

“ _When_ you’re sad.” Seungcheol wiped his face a moment and placed his head on Jihoon’s chest. “I love master a lot. Even if you never, ever love me back! Even if you just like me. I’ll love master forever and ever. So please don’t be sad. I’ll cheer you up. Okay?”

Jihoon’s arms automatically encircled his hybrid. “…okay.” Eventually he buried his face in Seungcheol’s hair. “…thank you, precious little Cheollie.”

“You’re welcome. I love you, master.”

Jihoon pressed a kiss to the top of Seungcheol’s head. “It’s at times like this… you know, you seem different.”

“Me? Good or bad?”

“I don’t know. It’s not a good-bad situation. It’s more like… sometimes you seem more child-like and others you seem like an adult.”

Seungcheol looked down a little, blushing. “It’s… because… well, master wanted a dog, right? I’m not a dog. But I can do my best to be like one, if you like. I mean, I have been working hard. I don’t want master to think I’m too human and trade me back in for another dog. I don’t want to go back.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Jihoon answered, confused. “…Cheollie, have you been acting extra puppy-like because you were afraid I wanted a dog, not you?”

The hybrid’s silence spoke volumes.

“Cheollie, if I wanted a dog, I’d have gotten a dog. But I wanted you.”

“Why?”

“It felt _right_.”

“But then-”

“I don’t want a Dog-Cheollie. I just want my Cheollie. You don’t have to act extra like a dog for me!” He tousled Seungcheol’s hair. “You’re already quite a bit like a puppy, you know? You can just be Cheollie from now on.”

“…you won’t give me back?”

“I’m never giving you back. Nobody else can ever have you, you know? You belong with me now, and I belong with you. That’s how it is.”

“Promise?” Seungcheol’s ears perked up and his tail wagged gently, his eyes full of hope.

“Promise.”

“…thank you. Jihoon.” Seungcheol gripped his master tightly, squeezing him. “…I _do_ like saying master sometimes, though.”

“Then you should do that, hm?”

Seungcheol seemed to take a sigh of relief, a strange expression falling from his face – as if he had been tensed up the entire time he’d been with Jihoon, finally letting go of burdensome thoughts.

“You have a home now. With me.” Jihoon stroked Seungcheol’s hair softly. “This is your home. With me. No matter what.”

“Thank you.” Seungcheol simply kept hugging. “I love you.”

Jihoon smiled a little. “Now. How’s lunch sound?”

Seungcheol let out an excited bark, tail whipping happily behind him.


	9. Part-time job

“…and they all lived happily ever after.”

Seungcheol sighed a bit. “You know it’s weird? It’s for children, but it still gives me a sense of peace inside.”

“I know, right? There’s a nice moral to the story.” Jihoon closed the book gently. “Ready to sleep now?”

“I guess.”

“I’m _right_ in the next room, you know.”

“I know.” Seungcheol bit his lip before asking. “Jihoon?”

“Yes?”

“…can I still be your good boy?”

“Absolutely.” Jihoon smiled, dropping a sweet kiss on his hybrid’s forehead. “For as long as you like.”

“What if… I want to be yours, and good, and a man?”

Jihoon looked down at the hybrid. Seungcheol looked a little lost but hopeful, as he was daring to do something new, a little scared of the answer, as if he couldn’t see what lay beyond, in the future.

“Cheollie, you can be whatever you want to be. Mine, good, and a man.”

“…it’s been four months since… you know.”

“I know.”

“…were they okay?”

“The four months? They’ve been great.” Jihoon sat on the edge of the bed again. “What’s wrong, Cheollie? Why all this angst?”

“I don’t know. Scared. Don’t…”

“I’m not deserting you and I’m not taking you back,” Jihoon answered with a soft smile. “You’re my Cheollie now and as long as you still want to _be_ my Cheollie I will do everything I can to keep you. Understand?”

“I understand. Jihoon? One more question?”

“Yes?”

“…I’ve been with Jun and Jeonghan and Minghao a lot.”

“I know. We’ve all become good friends, haven’t we?”

Seungcheol nodded a moment, plucking at his blanket. “They’re all having sex together.”

Jihoon was still getting _used_ to Seungcheol being an adult, after that morning’s revelation: he knew the hybrid had been getting lessons from his hybrid peers on human live and relations, but he didn’t realize just how detailed the young ram and cat had been.

“…yes.”

“But besides that… they’re all men. With… man parts.”

“Yes.”

“…I’m a man too, then.”

“Yeah, you are.”

“Are you a man?”

“Of course I’m a man.”

“You’re shorter than the rest of us.”

“Well you’re freakishly tall when you stand straight,” the short man defended hotly, before realizing what word he’d used. “Well, no, not freakishly. You’re not a freak. You’re all just really tall. I’m pretty regular, you know?”

“…so, do you have sex?”

Jihoon snorted. “Not anymore. Not in a long time, now.”

“I don’t have sex either.”

“I know.” The cogs slowly began to work in Jihoon’s mind. “Do you want to start dating? Do you have somebody in _mind_?”

“…I don’t know.”

Jihoon grinned a bit. “Vernon _is_ cute, but he’s a little young for y-”

“No! Not Vernon!” Seungcheol blushed a bit. “Never mind.”

“I think dating would be healthy. We should join some more clubs.”

“…really?”

“Yeah, sure. Or you can do it on your own, I’m sure you don’t need me around. Although…” Jihoon would never forget the haunting story Seokmin told him about raiders. “…maybe I’d like to be around. To protect you.”

Seungcheol smiled a little – a very genuine, sheepish smile. “I’d like that. Your protection.”

“Yeah?” Jihoon’s fingers wisped against Seungcheol’s cheek. “I like protecting you, so there’s that.”

“Good.”

“Good. Think you can sleep now?”

“M-hm.”

“…hey, Seungcheol?”

“Yeah?”

Jihoon stood in the doorway, hesitating. “…today. I told you. You know? Why I was looking for a dog in the first place.”

“Yeah.”

“…it took a lot of courage. For me.”

Seungcheol nodded. “Thank you. I do appreciate it.”

“Just…” Jihoon took a deep breath. “Someday – not now, but _someday_ … you tell me what happened to you before we met, as well.”

“…okay.” There was no fear or anxiety in the hybrid’s eyes. “Someday.”

“Someday.” Jihoon smiled in relief. “Good night, Cheollie.”

“Night, Jihoon.”

 

Jihoon didn’t sleep well. In fact, he didn’t sleep at all. He spent the night in a bed that was far too big for him, too cold, too lonely, twisting and turning until the sun came up. Out of frustration, the poor man sprang out of bed at six AM to make himself pancakes. _Because if I can’t sleep, I better damn well have a great fucking breakfast._

To his surprise, Seungcheol didn’t take long to arrive either: he was already showered and fully dressed. “…Morning.”

“Heyyy, Cheollie.” Jihoon smiled, flipping a pancake. “How did you sleep?”

Seungcheol looked up, dark rings under his eyes.

“Oh, no. Is the bed uncomfortable?”

Seungcheol shook his head. “No, it’s very comfortable. It’s like lying on a cloud.”

“Too cold in your room? It was cold last night.”

“No, no, I was warm enough.”

Jihoon flicked another pancake onto the already huge stack before pressing more batter onto the griddle. “So what kept you up then? You don’t look very well-rested.”

Seungcheol slowly came nearer, leaning his chin on Jihoon’s shoulder from behind. “…I guess it’s just hard. Sleeping alone.”

Jihoon held his breath. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Reminds me. Of bad things.”

Jihoon scowled. “That’s not right. I don’t like it when you think of bad things.”

“Yeah.”

They both stood in silence for a moment.

“Want to sleep with me again?”

“Can I come back with you again?”

The two stared at each other for a moment and then smiled.

“Sure,” Jihoon nodded happily. “That’s good. I got used to you, too. Besides, I was worried you’d have a nightmare and I wouldn’t be there for you. You get lots of them, don’t you?”

“I do. It sucks.”

Jihoon burst into a wide grin, trying to reel it in as he flipped the pancake.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just really unusual to hear you talk like this.”

“Do you hate it?”

“No, no! I really like it. You sound _a lot_ more human and _a lot_ more like your own age. It’s nice and comforting to know that you’re like that, too.”

“…I can still be a cute puppy dog!”

“Don’t fake things anymore.”

“Well… being cute and puppy-like _is_ fun though. Sometimes it’s nice to let my instincts take over.”

“…okay, that’s fair.”

Seungcheol’s tail wagged a little. “I love you.”

Jihoon grinned. “It’s nice to know that _that_ wasn’t faked.”

“Never.”

“I’m glad.”

“What are we doing today?”

“Well, it’s Saturday. I need to finish my column first, then we do grocery shopping. Oh! Jun says group is cancelled today. Seungkwan got sick and Wonwoo has a vet appointment, so we’re postponing for a little while. The rest of the day is ours for whatever we want.”

“Whatever we want, huh…”

“Was there something in particular you wanted to do?”

“…can we go to the park?”

“…sure! You’d like that?” He finished the stack of pancakes and poured a generous amount of syrup on them. “I guess we haven’t ever really been with just the two of us. How about we go to the flower park?”

“…flower park sounds nice.” Seungcheol’s arms clung around Jihoon’s waist. “Thank you. For everything. You know?”

“I know. Now you can make it up to me and eat breakfast with me. If I eat all of these, I’ll get fat.”

“Still love you, if you’re fat.” Seungcheol helped his master set the table and then sat down with him. “So it’s alright.”

“Don’t be silly.”

Seungcheol looked up with the most trusting, happy expression, eyes twinkling before they had breakfast together. Eventually his happy mood dissipated slightly.

“Jihoon?”

“Yeah?”

“…you’re leaving tonight again, aren’t you?”

Jihoon glanced up, expression serious but still blank. “…how did you know?”

“You always make breakfast special when you need to leave.” Seungcheol stabbed a pancake with a fork, obviously unimpressed with the idea. “You leave a lot.”

“I don’t!”

“You go twice a week.”

“…yeah, I do do that.”

“…I wish you didn’t.”

“I’m sorry, Cheollie. I have to.”

“Why?”

“Let’s call it a part-time job.”

Seungcheol took a deep breath but nodded in the end anyway. “…guess I can’t stop you.”

“No. You can’t.” Jihoon smiled and took away his empty plate, dropping a peck on Seungcheol’s hairline. “Don’t be upset. I don’t leave for long. It’s a few hours tops, right?”

“Right.”

“And I try to make sure you can stay over with Jun and the boys, so there’s that. I don’t like it when you’re here alone.”

“That’s true.”

“I’m not-”

Jihoon didn’t get to finish his sentence because before he had any idea what was happening, black-clad figures kicked down his door, placed their hands on Seungcheol’s body and began to drag him away.


	10. 15 days

He jumped down out of nowhere, it seemed: the man had scaled down the front of the building and hit the ground.

He pulled on the slide, loading the gun, pointing it straight at the head raider’s face. “Drop him. Drop him right now. Don’t even think about it.”

The man under the mask gave a snort.

It was a snort Jihoon often heard. A snort of _you won’t really shoot me_ , a snort of disbelief.

So the young journalist cracked a bullet into the pavement not two inches away from the man’s foot, reloading the gun instantly and pressing it up against the man’s forehead, digging the cold metal in through the material. “I said drop him! Drop him this fucking instant, you filthy piece of shit!”

He dropped Seungcheol to the ground.

“Cheollie, get into the car.” Jihoon handed the hybrid the keys, his whole body tense, not moving, still glaring at the man in black and his associates.

“Master-”

“Right now. No talking.”

Seungcheol took the keys, the poor hybrid’s entire body shaking, tail in between his legs. He opened up the car on the driver’s side and slid into the back of it, keeping the door open.

“I’ll get it,” one of the masked men said. “I’ll get it someday.”

“Over my dead body.” Jihoon backed up slowly, keeping the handgun pointed tensely. The gun was pointed at the man when he closed the door, it was pointed when he sped away: it was only until those black masks were no longer visible that he threw the handgun in the passenger’s seat and began to dial his phone furiously.

“Hello?”

“Jun. It’s Jihoon.”

“Oh, hey!” The friendly, warm tone of the man’s voice was an odd contrast to the concentrated, focused tense lull in Jihoon’s. “What’s up?”

“I need a safe house. Where can I go?”

“What happened?”

“…Seungcheol and I just escaped a raid.”

It took Jun a moment. “Go to my house. Jeonghan is home. I’m on my way.”

The phone was then discarded to the passenger’s seat as well: Jihoon put both hands on the steering wheel, arms stretched, knuckles going white as he passed the speed limit recklessly.

Seungcheol was whining and whimpering in the back seat, and Jihoon wasn’t sure how to change that.

Jeonghan was waiting by the door, obviously having been briefed by his owner. As soon as Jihoon cut the engine the cat hybrid was undoing many front door locks.

Jihoon didn’t spend any extra time doddling about: he gripped Seungcheol’s body and hefted him from the car, rushing him into Jun’s house as if another raid party could show up and snatch the hybrid away again.

“Into the kitchen. There’s a trap door to the bunker,” Jeonghan instructed quickly, shutting the door and doing up all the locks again.

Jihoon gently shifted his hybrid onto his shoulders as he found the kitchen and then took the ladder down: the whole bunker was dark, but pressure plates in the flooring sprang the lights to life. Jeonghan simply closed the hatch door on top of them, sealing them in.

Jihoon took a brief sweep glance of the bunker – it seemed to be the entire bungalow, more or less, underground. There was, however, one corner that seemed to just be a small blanket fort, filled with pillows and cordoned off with a small curtain. He gently placed his hybrid down on the thick blankets and pulled the curtain across.

Seungcheol was still shaking.

“Shhhh.” Adrenaline was still pumping through Jihoon’s veins, making his breathing hard and rugged: he worked hard to try and calm himself down. “Shhhhh.”

It took a moment, but then the waterworks began: Jihoon pulled his hybrid on top of his own body, curled up, and hugged him to his chest. “Shhhh, precious baby Cheollie.” He kissed Seungcheol’s forehead softly. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

For a very long time, all the hybrid could bring out were hurt, sad sobs and whimpers: sometimes he scrabbled to be closer to his owner, pressing his face into Jihoon’s chest or neck, at other times he simply shook and allowed himself to be calmed down.

“Pain,” he eventually whimpered.

“They hurt you?”

He nodded, face still in Jihoon’s neck. “Electric.”

“Does it still hurt?”

“No.”

Jihoon gripped his hybrid even harder then, pulling his chin over to tuck the man away. “…it’s alright now. I’m here. I won’t let them hurt you like that again.”

“Master,” the hybrid whimpered unhappily.

“Shhhhhh. I’m here, Cheollie. I’m here.”

“Master, master, you were gone, they had me and you were gone-”

“I did not leave you.”

“Master.” Seungcheol’s little sobs began to hiccup through his voice. “I – I … love! You!”

“I’m right here. I didn’t leave you. I won’t ever leave you.” Jihoon’s fingers gently began to stroke Seungcheol’s hair. “I didn’t let them take you away. I won’t let you be taken away from me. You’re staying with me.”

“With master.”

“Yes, with me.”

“With _my_ master.”

Slowly, between all these confirmations, both of them began to calm down. Seungcheol actually became a little sleepy, laying his head on his master’s chest and closing his eyes. “Master?”

“Yes, baby?”

“…thank you for rescuing me.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I’ll never let you be taken away.”

“Thank you for not letting me get taken away.” He pressed a kiss to Jihoon’s shirt. “…it was scary.”

“I know. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

“You’re here now.”

“I’m here now.”

“…you shot a gun.”

Jihoon closed his eyes a moment, voice lowering a little. “I would _never_ have hurt you. You don’t need to worry about that. There will never be a day that I shoot you. I promise.”

“…I love you, master.”

“I’ll never let you get hurt again.”

“…I love you, _different_.”

Jihoon shifted slightly, eyes furrowing ever so slightly in confusion.

“Don’t worry about it.” Seungcheol’s eyes remained closed. “…it’s like I said. You don’t have to love me back. But I love you. Thank you. My precious master.”

Jihoon wanted to respond to that, but suddenly there was a shuffle elsewhere in the bunker, making them both freeze. At first he thought it would be Jun trying to open the hatch again: then there was silence, and another shuffle.

“Master.”

The fear in Seungcheol’s voice was enough to break a man’s heart: Jihoon tweaked back a little bit of the curtain, glancing out.

“Master, what is it?”

“Shh, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“What if it’s-”

“It’s not.” Jihoon shook his arm. “We’re underground. Maybe an animal got trapped or something. It’s okay. I’ll go see.”

“Don’t. Stay here.”

“Hey, Cheollie.” Jihoon dropped another kiss on his hybrid’s forehead. “Don’t worry. You’re safe here.”

“Safe here,” he repeated.

“Yeah. Here, hold the curtain open so you can see me, okay?” Jihoon ventured out of the small cove in the bunker, silently tip-toeing across the room.

Around the corner, the mini-fridge had been opened, door swinging ajar a little. Most of the contents – jars and cans and food, some chocolate and all the shelves – were splayed out on the floor neatly.

Then suddenly there was a wisp of a tail from the tiny crack between the door and the mini-fridge.

Jihoon carefully pulled the door away, warned by an unhappy hiss.

And all of a sudden there he was, curled up inside the mini-fridge.

He was emaciated, for sure: his clothes hung off his shoulders limply. He probably hadn’t eaten in a few days, maybe more. The thick, fluffy, black-and-yellow tail whipped dangerously, mouth widening to hiss angrily at the stranger in the doorway.

“Hey.” Jihoon got down on the floor. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Another hiss.

“No, really. I won’t hurt you. Wow, look at you!” Jihoon looked at the creature in amazement. It had beautiful bronze skin that almost seemed like it had been airbrushed, and dusty dark caramel hair to match, but he had a beautiful, amazing trail of golden markings on his forehead. Tiny flecks of gold in an almost leopard-esque pattern came down his nose and spread, just a little, across his cheeks. From what was visible, the light golden pattern went down the back of the neck, too. “You’re beautiful, boy.”

The hybrid stopped hissing and blinked its large eyes. It had very dark, thick eyelashes that seemed to run like a line of black around his eyes, brown orbs flecked with gold.

“Yeah, beautiful.” Jihoon stretched a hand in but it just earned another defending hiss, so he pulled away again. “How do you feel about coming out of there? It can’t be comfortable in there.”

The hybrid wasn’t moving.

Jihoon had found he was getting quite good at reading hybrids – Jun, Seokmin and Seungkwan were good tutors – and after all, he’d had Seungcheol for four months already. He knew how to make his puppy tick, and other hybrids were not a long way off.

So Jihoon squatted down a little, glancing at the tins until finding the right one. He went off and soon returned with a can opener.

When the smell of tuna hit the air the hybrid stretched its long, dark neck out.

“Yeah? Smells good, right?” Jihoon found a small saucer and scooped the tuna out into it. “You look like you haven’t eaten in days, so go ahead. I’ll get some water.”

The bunker was well-stocked, obviously for times such as raids, and therefore had more than enough water. That went into a small bowl, and by the time Jihoon returned, most of the tuna was gone and the hybrid had returned into the fridge.

“Hey, why don’t you want to come out, hmm?” Jihoon slid both the saucer and the half-full bottle forward. “What’s wrong? I won’t hurt you. Look at me, I’m only a small guy.”

Jihoon coaxed the hybrid out of the fridge, and it became apparent very quickly why the hybrid had stuck itself inside the fridge: it was limping, and there was no blood. The hybrid had been pressing its foot up against the cooling system, keeping swelling down.

“Oh, you poor boy.”

The wary hybrid stared up, watching, _waiting_ for Jihoon to make a move.

“…I know somebody who might be able to help you with that, you know. He’s a doctor, and the man who owns this house.” Jihoon smiled gently. “He’s got two hybrids. One’s a cat and the other’s a ram. I have a hybrid, too, Cheollie. He’s just over there in the corner.”

The hybrid hissed.

“Oh, no. No, Cheollie wouldn’t hurt anybody, would you Cheollie? You can come over. It’s alright. It’s just a new friend who wants to meet you.”

Seungcheol padded over and sat down in front of the hybrid, wagging his tail. “Wow,” he whispered. “You’re pretty! Look at how round your ears are! Look at how pretty your tail is! You’re all gold! Wow!”

Jihoon chuckled a little. Seungcheol was an adorable hybrid.

It took a while, but Seungcheol was able to sneak forward and sniff at the new hybrid: it simply sat there, nudging back gently on occasion, trying to keep off its sore foot. It slowly seemed to relax, eventually blinking slowly, getting down and even daring a little smile.

Jihoon managed to open sardines next, and while the smell of them made Seungcheol gag and back up a little, they, too, were consumed very quickly by the new, cat-like hybrid.

“You must be starving, poor little guy.” Jihoon tutted a little. “Such a beautiful person. What have you been doing down here in a dark bunker?”

It didn’t answer.

“Do you have a name?”

Slowly, it opened his mouth. “Joshua.”

“Joshua. What a pretty name for such a pretty kitty.” Jihoon smiled. “How old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

Jihoon stared in horrified surprise: the hybrid had an adult’s body, tall, skinny but absolutely matured. He would have guessed the hybrid to be a decade older. “You’re fifteen years old?!”

“What’s a year?” The hybrid swallowed the last of the sardines. “I’m fifteen days old.”


	11. Peek

When Jun and Minghao returned home, there was a little consternation that made Joshua want to climb back into his fridge: but he was soon coaxed out again by Seungcheol, and led upstairs to meet the others.

He was an almost feral hybrid, having difficulty with social interactions. Joshua was placed on a cushion in a defendable corner of the room, where he was quite happy to glare at anybody who came near.

When Jeonghan walked in and saw him for the first time he gasped, dropping the notebook he was bringing Jun. He simply stood in the middle of the room, gasping for breath, frozen in place. Then he gently sank to his knees and with all the caution and trepidation of a curious kitten he slowly inched forward, low to the ground, until he could look up at the hybrid from up close.

“…you’re a cat,” Joshua whispered.

“You’re beautiful,” Jeonghan whispered back, in complete, astonished awe of this creature. “Oh my God, you’re _so_ beautiful. The most beautiful cat I’ve ever seen.”

Joshua leaned in, exposing his long neck and the golden fetters that trailed down the back of his neck: he sniffed lightly in curiosity.

“Jun, we have to keep him.”

“Now, Jeonghan.”

“No. You don’t understand. We have to. I _need_ him.” Jeonghan looked up with an expression that shocked his lover: he was more fiery, more defiant than he’d ever been before. Usually, the hybrid was languid and soft, almost bored with everyday life. Never had he displayed this kind of passion before. “I need him. Look.”

“What if he doesn’t want to stay?”

Jeonghan leaned in a little more and a little more, as Joshua did, until the two of them were barely a finger’s breadth apart.

“Stay with me,” Jeonghan whispered, his awed gaze boring into Joshua’s large, dark eyes. The question had been asked as if it were the most important thing ever said in the history of mankind, as if Jeonghan’s entire life would hang in the balance of the answer.

“Okay,” Joshua answered simply.

 

A simple googling expedition quickly turned up that Joshua was an ocelot – beautiful, small wild cats with huge eyes and distinct markings. In Joshua, thick black lines had been replaced with dusty marks that seemed to be the shape and form of other dappled markings, from many different wild cats. The pattern truly did look like somebody had taken golden lustre dust and brushed it on, or perhaps golden eyeshadow. It was such a startling contrast to his admittedly beautiful bronze skin, that it was entrancing to look at.

Jeonghan was the only one allowed close, and the young hybrid went for it: he curled up exactly like a cat to the large hybrid beside him, purring loudly.

“You hurt your foot?” Jun asked.

The ocelot hybrid nodded, shifting it out slightly. “I had to get through a crack in a brick wall. Then it went crack.”

Jun frowned a little, getting down to take a closer look. “This house isn’t made of brick. Not anywhere.”

“Not here.” The hybrid refused to speak anymore, simply requiring a little encouragement before allowing his leg to be examined.

“Well, I’ll need an x-ray to be sure. Looks like you’ve ripped some ligaments though. With lots of rest you should make a full recovery.”

Jeonghan smiled, nudging his face into Joshua’s neck as a sign of deep intimacy, which was very weird for the poor ocelot. “You’re going to be okay,” he grinned proudly.

 

With the hybrids all tucked away, snuggled up in various beds around the house, Jun poured his close friend a drink. They had several before Jihoon could speak.

“…it was so fast. One moment we’re having pancakes, the next minute he’s gone, he’s just _gone_. Taken. It was exactly like Seokmin told it. But I couldn’t have imagined… It grips you like a fist around your heart. This split second of… what if I lose him?” The look in the poor man’s eyes was one of feeling haunted. Complete, destroying fear. Soul-snatching, just like Seokmin had said. “So I just… I rushed out, off the balcony, and climbed down the front of the building to catch them. I took him back. Put him in the car and sped off.”

“Oh my God.”

“The last time I was so afraid… I thought I would stop living. I just couldn’t think, Jun. I couldn’t think at all. I just thought, _I have to get him back._ There was no if about it. I had to. Jun. God, Jun, what if I hadn’t been in time?”

Jun poured him another drink to ward off the tears pooling in his eyes. “Don’t think that way. You got him back. You’re one of the lucky ones.”

“But what about next time? The next time they come for him?”

“Don’t do that to yourself. The raid teams mark out the places where owners will fight for their hybrids. They don’t dare strike twice. They won’t follow you. You are safe.”

Jihoon drank a lot that night to ward off the threatening sobs that lay teetering on the edge of his conscious mind. Although they both knew Jun wouldn’t have judged him if he’d cried.

At around 3 AM, Seungcheol came looking for his master, rubbing his eyes, blanket slung around his shoulders. “I couldn’t sleep. I keep feeling it. Seeing them.”

Jihoon didn’t turn to his hybrid, simply showing Jun his expression. It was the most broken expression Jun had ever beheld on a man as secure and steadfast as Jihoon.

“Okay, Cheollie. I’m coming to bed. Just give me a moment,” he managed to cram out.

“Okay.” The hybrid turned and went back to the spare room.

“You two are going to be okay.” Jun held his drink to his lips, hesitating. “I don’t know how much of this we can tell Seokmin.”

“We can’t _not_ tell him.”

“…yeah. Yeah.”

“…we’ll see in the morning.”

“Yeah. Sleep tight. This house is safe, don’t forget.”

“Yeah. Thank you, Jun. I don’t know…”

“It’s good. Good night.”

“Night.” Jihoon padded down to the spare room and slid into the blankets with his hybrid, for the first time ever, pulling the puppy close.

“Jihoon?”

“Cheollie. You can sleep now. I’m here.” A protective arm remained around the hybrid’s stomach.

“You’re holding me,” he said calmly.

“…do you hate it?”

Seungcheol’s hand folded over his master’s. “…don’t take it away.”

“I won’t, Cheollie.” Jihoon nuzzled up protectively. “Nobody’s laying a finger on you tonight.”

“I’m safe? With you?”

“Absolutely.”

Eventually the hybrid turned to his master, large, dark eyes staring at him in the night. The look of pure trust and happiness in his face was breath-taking, as if Jihoon had forgotten how to inhale.

“My master is the best person in the world.”

“…wouldn’t go that far,” Jihoon eventually smiled, caressing some of the hybrid’s hair off his forehead. “I just… I need to protect you. I understand that now. You’re my responsibility and I’ll take care of you forever.”

“…I like that. Being your responsibility.”

“Yeah? I’m glad. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Jihoon’s finger tapped Seungcheol’s nose lightly. “It’s late, do you want to sleep?”

The hybrid shook his head, moving a little. “When you’re here, it’s hard to sleep. You’re really handsome, so it’s hard to shut my eyes.”

Jihoon blushed in the darkness. “Don’t be silly.”

“I’m not!” The tail wagged happily behind the hybrid. “You have beautiful round eyes and a cute nose and sometimes your lips have a heart-shape in the middle when you smile. And the way you cock your head to the side when you have to think about stuff is really cute, and I love the way you sing to yourself when you’re doing the laundry, and the way your eyes sparkle when you get passionate about your columns as you’re writing them, and when you’re done in the gym downstairs in the building and you come back up and you’re covered in sweat it’s really-” The hybrid suddenly cut off, clearing his throat and looking away. “You’re really good-looking.”

Jihoon’s entire face was emanating heat. “Oh.”

They sat there in silence for a moment.

“So, you think it’s hot when I’m sweaty?”

Seungcheol nudged him, embarrassed. “Shut up.”

“Hey, no.” Jihoon smirked. “I want to know, now.”

“Fine.” Seungcheol crossed his arms, laying flat on his back. “Yeah, I think it’s hot when you’re sweaty.”

“Why?” Jihoon interrogated, sitting up and leaning his head on his palm with a broad grin on his face. “What makes it so hot?”

“Shut up.”

“No, tell me.”

“Shut up!”

“Tell me!”

Seungcheol sighed. “It’s… your hair gets wet at the ends and it clings to your forehead, and then you leave the door unlocked when you shower.”

Jihoon had to think about that. “Holy shit, I _do_ leave it unlocked. I guess I never got around to locking it when you came.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“…wait, you peek?”

“I don’t!”

“Seungcheol!”

“It was _one time_ where I accidentally saw.”

Jihoon thought about his regular, post-workout showering routine. First soap, then lather, then… “Oh my God.” The arrogant smirk melted away. “You saw me _masturbate_?”

“How else did you think I got _Minghao_ to teach me about _sex_?”

“How could you do something like that?”

“L-like I said, it was an accident!” The hybrid began to shuffle away, scared. “I didn’t mean to! But you looked so pretty, I couldn’t look away!”

Jihoon had to take a moment to absorb all the information.

“Please don’t be angry master, please.”

“I’m… _not_ ,” the man answered, surprise at himself in his own tone. “I’m not that angry. Or that upset. I’m… kind of _proud_.” His voice betrayed how surprised he was by his own feelings.

Seungcheol pressed his face into his master’s side. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s alright.” Jihoon’s arm automatically moved to drape over Seungcheol’s shoulders. “Don’t worry.”

“…can I do it again?”

“What?”

“Peek.”

“While I’m…?”

“Yeah.”

“No way!”

Seungcheol snickered a little, looking up at his master. “…Jihoon?”

“Hmm?”

“…thank you for saving me today. I was very scared. You’re my superhero.”

Jihoon blushed heavily at that, looking at his hybrid. “…I’m nowhere near a superhero, Cheollie.”

“You are to me. You’re… you’re all I have.”

That sentence hit such a deep cord in Jihoon that he automatically tightened his arms around the hybrid. “Well, don’t forget, you’re all I have, too.”

“Nu-uh. You have a job. You have friends. You can do those things. I can’t. You’re my whole world.”

Jihoon cuddled him closer, unable to answer his hybrid pet who had been denied all his human rights.

“…Jihoon?”

“Yes?”

“If you want to do something with somebody, it’s usually wise to ask if it’s okay first, right?”

“Yeah.” Jihoon backed up a little. “…what do you want, Cheollie?”

“…I want to kiss you.”

“Cheollie, we kiss each other all the time.” The man dropped a peck on Seungcheol’s forehead in demonstration.

“No. I mean this.” The hybrid reached up tentatively, hesitating over his master’s lips for a moment before pressing down as softly as was ever humanly possible.


	12. Mirth and Innocence

Jihoon’s arms moved to Seungcheol’s waist and for a moment, the hybrid was afraid he had overstepped a boundary and was about to get pushed off. Instead, Jihoon’s warm embrace enveloped him, pressing him down to lie on top of his master.

The kiss was sweet, but not simple: there was a lot of tension in Jihoon’s lips, and he knew that as he kissed back, heart beating wildly in his chest, simply praying that his hybrid was enjoying the experience as much as he was.

Eventually Seungcheol moved off, hovering above his master’s face in shock, a surprised twinkle in his eyes. “That was…”

Jihoon nodded a bit. “Yeah.”

“Thank you.”

“…you’re welcome?” Jihoon looked up a little lustily. “…anytime.”

“…really?” Seungcheol’s tail began to wag in surprised happiness. “Really, really?”

“…yeah. I think so.”

Seungcheol moved in for another kiss: this time his master cupped his face, taking a little more control, lips hard and demanding. It thrilled both of them to be like that, with Jihoon in control, growling a little into his hybrid’s mouth, sucking Seungcheol’s lower lip a little before releasing.

Seungcheol whimpered, burying his face into Jihoon’s neck. “…feels good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Jihoon rubbed his hand down his hybrid’s back. “Good.”

“Master?”

“Yeah?”

“…please let me peek?”

“No way!”

“You won’t even know I’m there, I promise.” The hybrid’s face was hidden, but the tail wagging faintly from side to side proved he was just joking around. “Quiet as a mouse. Quiet as Wonwoo!”

Jihoon chuckled, elated, for some reason: he simply squeezes his hybrid a little and chuckled. “Shameful, you’re simply shameful.”

Seungcheol moved his head to look up at his master, a sinfully mischievous look on his face as his tail wagged harder. “It’s okay. You’ll still keep me, right?”

“Of course. I’m not letting you go anywhere.”

Seungcheol moved up to peck Jihoon’s lips once. “I think I can sleep now.”

“Yeah? Good. We both need some.”

Seungcheol moved to his side of the bed and fell asleep with his master’s arm curled around him. Jihoon was left to stare into the darkness, wondering whether he was making the biggest mistake of his life.

 

 “Master?”

Jihoon sighed, slowly waking up. “What is it?”

“I’m going to play with Jeonghan and Joshua.”

“Be safe.”

“Yes master.” Lips pressed against Jihoon’s and then the hybrid was gone, flitting out of the room to go play with his friends.

It was nearer midday before Jihoon could get out of bed, urged by a loud grumbling from his stomach: he managed to wash his face and show himself in the kitchen little by little, rubbing his eyes.

“Morning, sleepyhead.”

“Hey-hey, handsome!”

Jihoon took the cup of hot coffee gratefully. “Morning, Jun. Hey, Seokmin.”

Seokmin put an arm around his small friend. “…it’s okay now,” he comforted, obviously having been briefed on the situation. “Look. He’s happy.”

Out in the garden, Joshua and Jeonghan were stalking a small white butterfly, crouching low to the ground. Seungcheol was simply enjoying the butterfly’s presence, tail thumping to the ground as he watched it flutter.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Jihoon began to drink cup after cup full of coffee, until he was able to keep his eyes open without hating himself.

The hybrids came in for lunch, Wonwoo bounding in first: the love between him and his master was very nurturing, as the moment Seokmin reached out, the small chinchilla preened proudly. It was as if he were trying to say _look at me, and how great my master is, and how much he loves me._ Jihoon could only hope that one day, Seungcheol would feel the same about him.

After that, everybody seemed to plunge into cars and go back to Jihoon’s house: together, Jun and Seokmin fixed Jihoon’s front door, and added a surplus of locks onto it. Seokmin was an incredibly handy person to have around, Jihoon found.

As a thanks, they all held a food party in Jihoon’s apartment that night – they ordered food in, grabbed Netflix and had a party, as a celebration of the survival of a raid. Even though Jihoon enjoyed it, when it was finally just him and his hybrid, he had to let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s good to be alone sometimes,” he smiled, stretching on the couch.

“…do you want me to leave?”

“No, no, nonono!” Jihoon shook his head quickly. “I meant alone as in, just the two of us.”

“Oh.” Seungcheol moved over to lie down beside his master. “I like it, too. Just with you.”

Jihoon smiled. “I’m glad.”

“Master?”

“Yes?”

“Let’s have sex. Can we?”

Jihoon choked on air a moment.

“Is it a weird thing to ask?”

“It’s a weird thing to ask!”

“I thought consent was-”

“That’s not the point!” Jihoon sat up in surprise and instantly picked his hybrid up, before he could slink away. “Come here, precious Cheollie. Come here.” He couldn’t really stop himself: his lips were on Seungcheol’s immediately, trying to kiss him until he saw sense.

“J-Jihoon!” Seungcheol pulled away, upset. “I don’t understand anything!”

“I’m sorry.” Jihoon pressed his face into his hybrid’s collarbone. “…I’m sorry, Cheollie.”

Seungcheol whimpered unhappily, confused.

“...I don’t understand anything anymore, either,” Jihoon confessed. “Me, or what I feel, or you, or… I feel guilty when we kiss. Like I’m taking advantage of you. Like you don’t understand.”

Seungcheol thought about that. “I understand, I think. The only thing I don’t understand is… why you don’t… seem to like me. Different. I want to be good for you. The way boyfriends are. I’ve done a lot of reading. It sounds nice.”

“Seungcheol…” Jihoon looked up. “You don’t understand. I’m broken. Damaged. You don’t want to love me. You don’t want to be like a boyfriend to me. I’m _wrong_ on the inside, Seungcheol.”

The hybrid had difficulty with the idea that his perfect owner could be all that. “How?”

“I can’t love. I don’t love. I don’t know how. I can’t feel it, I can’t say the words. Maybe, deep down, I don’t think it’s real. I’m not like other people. I can’t _love_ you, Seungcheol. I can kiss you, I can take care of you, I could even fuck you, but I can’t love you. I don’t know how. How does loving work?”

Seungcheol visibly thought about that for a long time.

“I don’t think that’s true, Jihoon.”

“Hm?”

“…never mind. For now… I just want to be with you. I don’t care if you think you’re broken. You… hold me. Without hurting me. You kiss me and you don’t yell at me. You take care of me. I just want to be with you. Please… don’t send me away just because I love you.” The hybrid looked up solemnly. “If it makes you uncomfortable, I really will stop. But I love you so much. I can’t… explain it. I love you. Your eyes, your voice, the way you tell me off for eating the crème pate.”

“You _could_ leave me some, you know.”

Seungcheol rolled his eyes, more human than ever. “I just want to stay with you.”

“You’ll always be able to stay with me, Cheollie. I just… I can’t let you go anymore. Not ever.” Jihoon gripped his hybrid tighter. “But I don’t know if I can give you what you deserve.”

“I don’t care about deserve. I want to be with you. Jihoon. I know you still see me as a dog, but… even dogs have feelings, right?”

“I don’t see you as a dog,” Jihoon answered immediately. “You’re a man. It’s just… sometimes, there are times, when you act differently. And I’m scared of hurting you.”

“You can’t hurt me. It’s okay. I’m not that fragile. Not anymore.”

“No.” Jihoon stroked Seungcheol’s hair. “You’re not the scared puppy-boy I adopted at first. Correct. I’ve gotten to see all of you, since. I’m really happy.”

Seungcheol smiled, practically glowing. “I’m happy too. And I’m happy when I kiss you.”

“…I think I am, too.”

“You think?”

“It’s new to me. I haven’t… I mean, the last relationship I was in… took a toll. Kissing somebody again is… new. I’m not sure how much control I have.”

Seungcheol moved up a little. “How about I seduce you?”

Jihoon chuckled. “What?”

“I mean… you’ll let me kiss you, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Like this?” Seungcheol pecked Jihoon’s cheek.

“Yes.”

“And this?” Now he pecked his lips.

“…yeah.” The affirmation was a little hesitant this time.

“Then how about this?” And suddenly Seungcheol was there, in full force: his lips on Jihoon’s, sweet and softer than they looked, opening his mouth delicately, moaning a human type of sound into his master’s mouth.

It wasn’t an intoxication, or maybe it was – Jihoon didn’t have the wits about him to figure out what he was feeling, exactly. All he knew was that he felt alive – like the person in his arms wanted nothing more than to stay right there, with him, kissing him. It was thrilling to feel wanted, again – thrilling to feel that shiver down his spine when Seungcheol experimentally nipped Jihoon’s bottom lip.

“Oh, God.”

“What? Not good?”

“Very good. Very, very good.” Jihoon stroked Seungcheol’s hair again, a little breathless. “What did I ever do to deserve somebody like you, Cheollie?”

The hybrid shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know that I love you. I want to stay with you. Like this. If I can. Because I love you.”

Jihoon leaned forward, pressing Seungcheol closer, kissing his forehead fervently. “You can stay like this.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“I love you, Jihoon.”

“I know.”

“As a hybrid loves his master… as a man loves another man.”

“…I know.” Jihoon’s voice was barely a whisper.

“…that scares you.” Seungcheol’s arms wisped around his master’s waist. “It’s okay. You don’t need to be scared if it’s me. I’ll take care of you. I know you’re still not over your ex. It’s okay. I’ll be here forever.”

Jihoon choked out a little laugh, trying to regain control over his emotions. “You know, it’s funny? I’ve always been the one taking care of you. Reassuring _you_. It feels weird to be on the receiving side.”

“Bad?”

“No, not bad. It… kind of feels good.” Jihoon nuzzled into his hybrid’s embrace. “It’s hard for me. With other people. To show vulnerability like this. But when you’re here… somehow it doesn’t matter. Nothing does. You… make my soul calm. Does that sound stupid?”

“No. I’m glad.”

“Thank you for taking care of me, Seungcheol. I’ll do my best to take care of you, too.”

“You already have, master.” Seungcheol smiled, leaning down to kiss his master, and this time it felt _right_ for both of them.

There was no more guilt, no more oddity in his feelings. Jihoon soared as he was kissed, and soared higher when he kissed back. With this strange understanding between the two of them, it was just as he had said. Nothing else seemed to matter when Seungcheol was near. When Seungcheol was happy. When he had to stop kissing for giddy chuckles escaping him. The smile in the hybrid’s eyes was full of mirth and innocence.

So it was a pity, a reality that drew the two of them out of their fantasy in the clouds the next morning, when Jihoon’s ex-boyfriend suddenly stood at the door, flowers in hand.


	13. The Heat, p1

Jihoon stared in surprise for a moment, shock taking his entire body over.

Seungcheol watched from the side lines, bewildered and a little upset.

“ _Mingyu_.”

“Hello, Jihoon. Uh, this sounds a little stupid, but… I changed phones back then, and only recently switched on my old phone and got your text. Do you… I don’t suppose you still _have_ my singlet ring?”

Jihoon was frozen for a moment before he could move. “Not sure. Sit down. I’ll go look.” The man plodded back into his bedroom, where he knew damn well where Mingyu’s precious singlet ring sat. He simply sat down on the edge of the bed, and hid his face in both his hands, as a black hole in his chest began to consume him alive.

 

Mingyu stood awkwardly before noticing the hybrid on the couch: he started, and then he moved to sit on the other couch. “Here boy,” he said, smiling. “Here boy, come here!”

Seungcheol looked at him in vague disdain. “I’m not a dog, you know.”

“…oh.” Mingyu straightened out, putting the roses on the table. “Sorry.”

Seungcheol didn’t react.

“Wow, I guess Hoonie really did move on. Hey, just between the two of us – isn’t it hard to live with him? I mean, he’s so cold. Isn’t it a pain? When _we_ were together, the man was awful. Couldn’t even say I love you. Is he babysitting you, or does he-”

“Jihoon is my master.”

“… _right_. So, how do you deal with him hating everybody?”

“He doesn’t.”

“Well, okay, but he doesn’t love anybody.”

“He loves _me_.”

“Yeah, sure he does.”

“He does. I know he does.”

“How?”

“…Jihoon calms me down when I’m scared, saves me when I need him, wakes me up if I’m having nightmares. He pets me and strokes my arms and makes food for me whenever I ask. Jihoon asks a dozen times whether I’m feeling okay. He’d never let me get hurt. He calls me precious. He tells me off when I’ve done something stupid, because he cares about whether I’m okay or not. Jihoon likes it when I’m near, and he gets anxious if I’m gone for a long time or he can’t find me. Jihoon loves me a lot.”

Mingyu blinked in surprise at the passionate hybrid.

“Didn’t Jihoon ever do any of that for you? Hold you and tell you that you’re precious?”

“…yeah, I guess he did.”

“Then he loved you, too. And in return, you broke him.”

The two sat there, staring at each other for a while until Jihoon returned with a small jewellery box, Mingyu’s ring inside. “Mingyu. Here.”

 “Oh, thanks.” Mingyu sprang up, taking the flowers up again. He fumbled a little getting to his ex-boyfriend. “Jihoon… I know… what I said to you last time was wrong. I know I – I was mean and I don’t think I was thinking straight. Having you around was one of the best things I could have had. You know how they say you don’t know what you have till it’s gone? Yeah, that. So I don’t care if you don’t love me. If you can’t. I want you back.”

Jihoon stared at the man whom he’d thought had been his everything.

“Please?”

“…it’s been over a year, Mingyu.”

“I know that, but-”

“I have somebody else now.”

“…what?”

“Somebody who holds me when I’m scared, instead of just telling me to get over it. Somebody who is patient with me. Somebody who _actually_ loves me and wants me to be happy. He is… the most precious person in my life now. So I’m sorry, but you had your chance. You screwed up. You broke me on the inside. Now I’m with somebody better.”

“Oh yeah? Who?”

Jihoon turned his head a little. “His name is Seungcheol.”

The hybrid slowly got up and put his hand in Jihoon’s.

 

Mingyu had a little rant and rage – how could _he_ , a strong, tall, handsome man – have been dropped for a measly hybrid? But none too soon Jihoon kicked his ex-boyfriend out on his ass and shut the door behind him, doing up all the locks.

The two waited inside the apartment, listening to the sounds as Mingyu exited the building.

“Master.” The hybrid pressed his face into Jihoon’s clavicle. “Master, master I love you. I love you so much. I love you so much!”

“Shhhh, it’s okay. Did he scare you?”

Seungcheol shrugged. “Yeah. I was scared you would take him back and I’d…”

Jihoon gripped his hybrid tightly, as if the hybrid was the man’s last hope of salvation. “No, baby. No, I’ll never let you go. I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’ll say it a thousand more, if I must.”

“But you loved him.”

“…it’s been a long time since I was with him.” Jihoon scratched behind one of Seungcheol’s ears. “As long as I’ve got you, Cheollie, what do I care about him?”

Seungcheol’s tail began to wag a little.

“As long as my Cheollie is here, who else am I going to need?” Jihoon fettered kisses all over his hybrid’s face, making him giggle. “Who else could I want when Cheollie is near-by?”

“Nothing, I hope.”

“Nothing! Absolutely nothing.” Jihoon gripped his hybrid, kissing him very deeply: the two simply stood there, kissing each other for a moment.

“I love you,” was the first thing Seungcheol said.

“Yes, baby.” Jihoon smiled.

“…I want to sleep with you.”

Jihoon chuckled a little. “I know.”

“You don’t want to sleep with me?”

“Did I say that? I just want to take it slow.” Jihoon hugged his hybrid closer. “I want to savour each and every moment.”

Seungcheol sighed a little, closing his eyes, pressing his forehead against Jihoon’s. “…I’m going to go into heat soon.”

“What?”

“Jeonghan’s told me what happens. During a heat. Told me how it feels. I can feel it coming.”

Jihoon’s heart began to beat harder, panicking slightly. He hadn’t researched hybrid heats yet, and had no idea what to expect. “What do I do?”

“Just… promise you’ll take care of me? Please?”

“Of course, Cheollie. Of course. I’ll take care of you.”

“I love you.”

“I know.”

 

For the following three days, Seungcheol seemed more languid than usual: he was a little lazier, a little sleepier, opting to stay in bed longer, doing less. He slept for a lot of the day and didn’t really feel like going outside anymore, and when asked to ‘come see Jun & co,’ he refused.

“Cheollie?

“I said, I don’t really want to.”

“…come on. Why not? You always love visiting them, and you’ll get to see Joshua again.”

“I don’t want to see them.”

“Seungcheol.” Jihoon put down his keys again and sat with his hybrid. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Seungcheol seemed to inch away, curling up. “You can go if you want. I want to stay at home.”

Jihoon thought about that, his voice weaker than he’d intended it to be. “I don’t want to leave you alone here.”

Seungcheol shrugged apathetically.

“What’s up, huh? You’ve been acting weird for days now.”

Jihoon’s hand on Seungcheol’s shoulder was thrown off with an irritated snarl. “Just leave me alone. Okay?”

Jihoon flinched in surprise at that. Never, not once had Seungcheol ever spoken to Jihoon like that – so agitated and afflicted. And simply annoyed with Jihoon’s very presence. It was as if he’d been stabbed in the gut.

“…lock the door after I’m gone.”

“Yeah.”

“All of them.”

“Yeah.”

“Call me if anything happens.”

“Whatever.”

Jihoon picked up his keys and hesitated by the front door. “…I’ll see you later, Cheollie. Take care of yourself.”

“Whatever.”

Jihoon didn’t leave the hallway outside his apartment until he had counted every single lock being done up by his hybrid. With a heavy heart, he went to Jun’s house without his hybrid for the first time.

 

“Must be close,” Jun noted. “To heat, I mean. All hybrids react differently, before-hand. Jeonghan gets really picky about everything. Minghao gets irritated though.”

Jihoon wasn’t sure how to answer that.

“…I took Joshua to the hospital the other day. Ran some tests. Took some blood. The whole shebang. You’ll never guess.”

“What?”

“…hybrids are created by drafting animal DNA into a human embryo before the 8th week after conception. Then they let the embryo grow – in an artificial environment – until it is ready to come out. Because of the ideal settings of the environment, they usually have an incubation time for about twelve to sixteen months, instead of the human nine.”

“Yeah.”

“…Joshua is a little different.”

“Yes?”

“…don’t ask me how, but Joshua’s cells aren’t twenty-odd years old, like they should be.”

“Okay?”

“They’re not even sixteen months old.”

Jihoon froze.

“According to my calculations, he went from a blub of cells to a fully-grown hybrid man in a fortnight.”

“Jun, that’s impossible.”

“I can show you the work.”

“But it’s not-”

“His stem cells are still intact. All of them. Even the ones that should be gone, depleted by now.” Jun stared at nothing for a moment. “…I haven’t told anybody this, but I fear for him. I don’t know what they did to him. I don’t know what they could still be doing to him. We haven’t seen any rapid growth in the last few days. But…”

“There’s no such thing as-”

“That’s what people said when hybrids were first created.”

Jihoon couldn’t speak to that. They simply watched as Minghao giggled to himself, holding little ends of rope in either hand, playing with the two cats in the living room.

“So, Seungcheol’s going into heat. How are you handling the idea?”

“I’m not sure what to expect.”

“Well there’s-”

The two were interrupted by Seokmin, Seungkwan, Wonwoo and Vernon all trampling in from the rain: they were mostly soaked through, and had to be settled with some towels and hot tea before any more talking can be done.

“What’s up with our newbie today, huh? Where’s Seungcheol?”

“Didn’t want to come. Acted like a rebellious teenager.”

“Ah, heat will be settling in.”

Seungkwan, for some reason, went bright pink.

“Jihoon doesn’t know what a heat is. Can you guys explain it? I need to make a call.”

Seokmin and Seungkwan both turned to a patient Jihoon as Jun left the room with his phone.

“There’s going to be sex,” Seokmin started plainly. “Lots and lots of sex.”

“Excuse me?”

“He’s going to _need_ it. He’ll be shaking with the need. And, likely as not, it will have to be you. He’s really attached to you, you know?”

“I don’t know if I can do that.”

“Why not? Even Seungkwan can do it.”

“Hey!” Seungkwan was the color of a tomato.

“It’s just… not like that. For us.”

“It’ll be like that for him,” Seokmin warned. “And he’ll do anything to get it. I promise.”

“When do most hybrids have their first heat?”

“Hmm, depends. I hear girl hybrids go earlier, but for guys it’s around sixteen or seventeen.”

“Seungcheol’s late,” Seungkwan mumbled, picking up a slice of pizza.

“…yeah.”

“Sorry, guys, I’m back. What did I miss?”

“Jihoon thinks he’s going to make it through without fucking his hybrid silly.”

Jun gave his friend a sceptic look.

“You an all say what you want. The way he’s been acting lately… trust me. He does not want me.”

Jun slung an arm around his friend in sympathy. “Oh man. You’re in for a surprise.”

They jested through the night, but by the time midnight had slid by, Jihoon was getting restless, thinking of his hybrid all alone at home. The idea of what _might_ happen while he wasn’t there, of what could come – _who_ could come – for his Seungcheol made him anxious. So anxious that Jun almost kicked him out of the house.

The drive home was too fast, and very panicked: Jihoon undid all the locks as quickly as humanly possible, drenched in a cold sweat. “Cheollie?” the door slammed behind him as he ran in. “Cheollie?!”

Seungcheol was in the living room, pants down, legs apart, shaking and sweating bullets as he tried to jack himself off for the first time. The very sight of his master brought relief to his expression.

“Thank God, you’re home.”

With a simple smile the hybrid came all over himself, in thick white streams. 


	14. Boyfriends

Seungcheol woke up in his own bed, shaking from head to toe: Jihoon gently put a cold cloth on the hybrid’s forehead in a desperate attempt to lower his fever.

“Master.” His voice was so weak, he had to try again. “Master!”

“Shhhhh.” Jihoon poured the back of his head over Seungcheol’s cheek. “You’ve got a very high fever. You’re sick. Just rest, baby.”

Seungcheol shook his head, ears twitching. “I need… I need…”

“What do you need?” His worried master poured over his hybrid, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “What do you need, baby?”

“ _Fuck_. I need.” One of Seungcheol’s hands slid out: where Jihoon was seated on the edge of the hybrid’s bed, there Seungcheol began to palm him between the legs. “Want master.”

Jihoon squirmed under Seungcheol’s administrations, gently taking his hand away. “You can think about that when you’re feeling better, Cheollie.”

“No. I need it.” The figure under the sheets bucked up at the hip area, as if he was desperate for friction. “Please?”

Seungcheol was a pitiful sight: he was dripping in sweat, face flushed, desperate for attention. Limbs weak with want. “Please,” he gasped. “Master. I want you.”

“Cheollie…”

Seungcheol looked up with big, sad eyes. “…you’re so handsome. Jihoonie.”

 

“What do I do?!”

“You’ve got to screw him, Jihoon.”

“How can I do that?” Jihoon hissed back, careful to keep his voice low as he gripped the phone too tightly. “He’s got a fever! He’s _sick_ , he needs medicine, not sex!”

“Jihoon.” Jun sighed. “This is what we were talking about. The only way to drag him through this is to have sex with him. If you don’t… feel that way, then you’re going to have to enlist somebody for the job. But he might not forgive you for it.”

“You’re a _great_ help,” Jihoon mumbled. “I just… it’s like he’s not in his right mind.”

“I know. He’ll become more normal once you help him.”

“You think?”

“I know. Listen, I’ve got to go. See you later?”

“See you.”

 

Seungcheol had thrown the covers off: he had a hand curled around his cock, entirely naked, legs thrust wide open, absolutely dishevelled on the bedsheets. He was twisting and twitching any way he could, trying to relieve himself of the heat that was burning through his body. His eyebrows were furrowed, lips parted, eyes shut closed in deep concentration.

Jihoon didn’t _want_ to get excited, but there was something so shameless about the sight of the hybrid – so open and indecently lustful – that made him take an unstable breath of air.

Seungcheol paused a moment, eyes opening at the small sound to look at his master.

Jihoon stood in the doorway, hesitating, face red. Just watching Seungcheol pleasure himself was tantalizing.

“Jihoon.” Seungcheol simply looked on, hopeless.

Jihoon moved over and pressed a sweet, dainty kiss to his hybrid’s lips. “Seungcheol. I can help.”

The moment the man’s hand wrapped around Seungcheol, replacing his own hand, the hybrid’s expression seemed to calm a little, lips parting a little more, heaving breath stilling a moment.

Jihoon pulled his fist up and down experimentally.

The effect it had on Seungcheol was magical: his entire face seemed to draw together in tense pleasure, a little moan of happiness escaping his throat. His head moved on the pillow, fingers scrunching the bedsheets between them.

Jihoon’s face went even pinker, unable to stop himself. “You like that, Cheollie?”

“Yes,” he answered in a whisper, eyebrows furrowed even more, almost afraid to move. “F-fuck, yes.”

Jihoon did it again, and watched as Seungcheol twisted and twitched at the pleasure running through him, the very sight of it making the young man grow hard.

“Fuck, master, please.” Seungcheol looked up, eyes glassy with lust. “Please play with me.”

“Play with you?” Jihoon smirked, an almost sadistic side to him venturing out. “Yes, baby, I’ll play with you. Until we’re both having way too much fun.”

The feeling of jacking Seungcheol off was almost silky, for Jihoon: it had been so long since he’d engaged in anything sexual with anybody, he’d almost forgotten what it felt like. Seungcheol was a sizable man, and had a thick cock to match his physique: it was almost pretty, too, throbbing and pink at the head.

Seungcheol was writhing in pleasure.

He’d never been stimulated by somebody else, barely been stimulated by himself: he’d seen his master perform masturbation, but he hadn’t attempted it until now. And now to have Jihoon’s hand around him – _Jihoon_ , a perfect man he loved so much – to have him be pleasuring Seungcheol, made the tense, fricative feeling even better. It was as if Jihoon was dragging him to the point of ultimate pleasure slowly on purpose, dragging out every movement and sound Seungcheol could make in the process. And he was by nature a very loud man.

“Fuck, Jihoon.” He panted loudly, unable to watch himself get treated. “Please.”

“You’re very sexy like this, you know. So scandalous.” Jihoon smirked, his ministrations on Seungcheol’s dick never changing. It was the same, slow rhythm, always. “With your clothes all open and your legs wide, moaning my name. Begging me. God, I want to fuck you so bad, baby. Seungcheol, you’re so… pretty.”

“Jihoon.”

“Seungcheol, I want you to open your eyes.”

“No, master, I’m-”

“Look at me.”

The moment Seungcheol opened his eyes Jihoon moved up to kiss him deeply, never stopping his pumping hand: Seungcheol went dizzy with affection and lust, simply staring at his master. “I love you.”

“I’m going to make you feel good.”

Jihoon’s mouth descended on Seungcheol’s cock, lapping his tongue over the head for a moment before taking the tip in between his lips and sucking gently, just to see the response.

Seungcheol squirmed, trying to buck his hips up in surprise, letting out the loudest moan of Jihoon’s name yet: he struggled to keep himself right and most importantly, inside Jihoon’s mouth as he groaned in pleasure, his whole body tensing, tingling with the feeling of Jihoon’s hot, sweet tongue.

“Master.” His gasps became more and more urgent the longer Jihoon’s lips covered his length. “Master, fuck, Jihoon, Jihoon, master!”

Jihoon moved off him with a soft pop. “Go on, Cheollie. Cum. Finish. It’ll feel good.”

Jihoon began in earnest, now, desperate to finish Seungcheol off: his head bobbed over Seungcheol’s cock as his tongue slid little patterns on the underside, trying to suck him at a ferocious rate, straining both jaw and throat to do so.

And then suddenly Seungcheol pulled his master off harshly, gripping him by his hair as he came, cock twitching with every little spurt – neither of them paid it much heed. Seungcheol was too busy now kissing his master, deeply. There was so much heartfelt emotion in Seungcheol’s kiss: sweetness, gratitude, and genuine love, it almost brought Jihoon to tears.

Seungcheol’s lips stilled when it was all done, his expression turning to one of sublime peace.

Jihoon could feel his heartstrings being pulled, pressing his nose against his hybrid’s. “…better, baby?”

“M-hm.” Seungcheol nodded just a tiny bit. “…I love you. Thank you.”

Jihoon’s lips moved to kiss Seungcheol’s temple. “I’m glad. You’re welcome.”

“…can I sleep now?”

The question was so innocent, accompanied by a sleepy but strangely lost look, Jihoon had to break out into a grin. “Yes, baby. You can sleep now. I’ll clean you up and then you can nap.”

 

“Jihoon?”

“Hey, sunshine. Sleep well?”

Seungcheol nodded, blinking. “Are we boyfriends now?”

Jihoon blanked in surprise. “Uh…”

“…never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

But it did matter – it was visible in his eyes, on his face, that it mattered, as he turned away to stare at the ceiling a little.

It felt like one of his ribs had broken or something. Jihoon moved in from the doorway to sit on the edge of the bed. “Seungcheol. Seungcheollie, look at me, baby.”

The hybrid looked at his master with an air of impassivity, but he couldn’t hide how hurt and disappointed his was.

“Seungcheol… do you _want_ to be my boyfriend?” Jihoon’s fingers gently wisped hair off the hybrid’s forehead. “I’m broken, remember? I don’t think you would like it very much. God knows, Mingyu didn’t.”

“… _he_ didn’t understand. I do.” Seungcheol reached up to touch his master’s face. “…you are my whole world, Jihoon. My entire existence depends on you. But more than that… I want to be with you. I like it when you take care of me. But I want to take care of you, too. And… I want to mean something to you. But I know I can’t, so-”

“Hey.” Jihoon cupped his hybrid’s face gently between his hands, smoothing his thumbs over Seungcheol’s cheeks. “Don’t _ever_ think you are meaningless to me. You’re my precious Seungcheol, and no matter what, you will always be precious and meaningful to me. Do you understand?”

The hybrid remained silent.

“Seungcheol, you are important to me. How can you doubt that?” Jihoon leaned in to kiss his forehead. “So important. If you weren’t, I would have let you be taken away. But I don’t want to be here without you anymore. Okay?”

The hybrid seemed to be taking what he could, nodding. He wasn’t very impressed.

Jihoon leaned in and pecked his lips. “Seungcheol, boyfriends… kiss on the lips, go out on dates, and sometimes they have sex. You know what you’re asking for? I can’t… I mean, I’m not…” He sighed, words failing him.

“I know what you are. What you can and can’t do. I know you.” Seungcheol looked up unhappily. “And I want you. The way you are, right now.”

Jihoon leaned in again for another fervent kiss, deep and soothing for just a moment before pressing his forehead to Seungcheol’s. “…yes.”

“…yes?”

“Only if you want to be.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“M-hm.”

Seungcheol brightened, as if a weight had fallen off his shoulders. “I love you… boyfriend.”

Jihoon chuckled, almost giddy with delight at the word. “You’re my boyfriend, Cheollie. My precious, sweet boyfriend.”

Seungcheol giggled back happily, glowing. “My master’s my boyfriend. Wait. Does that mean I can’t call you master, anymore?”

Jihoon thought about it. “Well, technically I still own you as a hybrid. Your chip bares my name. So I guess you could, if you wanted to. It’s not necessary, though.”

“I love you,” the loyal hybrid smiled.

“I know.” Something in Jihoon’s voice changed, almost as if he became more vulnerable. “Thank you for loving me, Cheollie.”

Seungcheol moved to kiss his boyfriend deeply.

Jihoon smiled a little. “So, is that it then? Your heat?”

Seungcheol waved the iPhone in his hand that his master had graciously bought him for their two-month anniversary. “According to the internet… no.”

“…you’re going to have to explain, Cheollie. I’m doing this for the first time you know.”

“I know.” Seungcheol turned the phone on and began to read out loud. “Once mature, most canine hybrids display heat cycles once every two to three months, each heat lasting ten to fourteen days. During this time, a canine hybrid that is denied sexual intercourse with his or her designated partner may experience pain and emotional suffering, due to the extreme nature of hybrids’ heat cycles. On average, a canine hybrid must copulate at least twice every twenty-four hours.”

Jihoon did a terrible job at hiding his happily arrogant smirk. “Wow. Two weeks. Twice a day. How horrible.”

Seungcheol looked up, upset and vulnerable.

“A true tragedy,” his master continued, pressing small, discreet kisses down Seungcheol’s throat and flowing over his chest. “I don’t know _what_ I’ll do. What terrible misfortune has befallen me. I have to take this man… this beautiful, strong, handsome, fucking _delicious_ Seungcheol and ravish him over and over again for days on end…”

Seungcheol’s face flooded with heat as Jihoon’s mouth reached down further and further. “I-is it bad?”

Jihoon looked up deviously, the smirk on his face giving away just how much he was enjoying himself in the thralls of their newly titled relationship. “No, baby. I’m going to fuck you until we’re both exhausted.”

“…promise?”

Jihoon looked up in surprise as Seungcheol’s fingers glided forward to knot in Jihoon’s hair. Seungcheol had been a little submissive, undemanding, almost completely passive, up until now. There was a light in his eyes and a daring in his voice, _demanding_ an answer to his sexual needs as a man.

The small master smirked a little more, dropping a kiss to Seungcheol’s underwear without ever losing eye contact. “Promise.”

Seungcheol grinned, licking his lips a little.

“Now.” Jihoon sat up, resting his head on both of his palms, hovering over his boyfriend’s cock. “How do you feel about penetration?”


	15. The Heat, p2

Seungcheol’s entire face – his beautiful, sweet face of large eyes and full lips – was scrunched up in an attempt to withhold all evidence of both the pain and pleasure he felt. It was as if he couldn’t even understand everything he was feeling at once: short of breath, panting, sweating, moaning, groaning, and twitching all over.

“Fuck, Jihoon, please.”

Jihoon simply sat there, in between his boyfriend’s legs, gliding one lubricated finger up and down his cock, swirling a little at the tip every time before descending again. “Please what, baby?” he smiled.

It was the third day of heat and so far, they simply hadn’t quite made it to penetration yet. Jihoon wanted to be certain his hybrid was ready, felt safe, and most importantly was turned on enough to have himself fucked mindless.

“Please fuck me, oh fuck, please. Please?”

Jihoon had also come to discover that there was little either of them enjoyed more than a hierarchal display of dominance. Seungcheol thrived off being at the mercy of his master – a term they now solely used for bedroom experiences – and enjoyed being his master’s plaything, up to a certain point.

“You want to be fucked, baby?”

“Yes, please, master.” Seungcheol rested his head still for a moment, panting, toes curling. “I’m going to go crazy like this.”

“What if I like it when you go crazy?”

Seungcheol let out a little growl and then a whimper of lust, whining for his master. “Please.”

“Here.” Jihoon covered his finger with lubricant again, moving to press his lips against the inside of Seungcheol’s thigh, a spot which was very sensitive on the poor hybrid. His suckling there made his hybrid moan a little – and then the tip of his finger gently began to slide up against Seungcheol’s entry.

“Oh, God.”

The tip of the finger moved in slowly, giving Seungcheol time to get used to the foreign feeling: Jihoon would rather err on the side of caution, using more and more lube as he went on. He left off Cheol’s thigh after creating a pretty hickey there, concentrating solely on sliding his finger in and out of his boyfriend until his grunts of discomfort became little whimpers of pleasure.

Jihoon smirked, glancing over Seungcheol’s erection at his face. “Feel good, baby?”

“M-hm.” Seungcheol gasped a little, trying to control himself. “So much attention.”

“Yes, you like it when I give you attention. When I give your pretty cock attention.” As a reminder, Jihoon brushed the flat of his tongue up the underside of Seungcheol’s member, making him twitch and moan. “When I give your ass attention.” His finger slid in and out, just a little, making him simply breathe harder. “You like having your master focus on you, hmm? Baby?”

“Y-yes, master.”

Jihoon added a second finger, taking his sweet time about it: Seungcheol was trying to get used to the pain, and his master was desperately trying to lubricate himself enough for there to be none at all. As he worked his fingers in and out of his boyfriend he moved up, kissing his divine body along the way up to his mouth. “Cheollie. Are you okay?”

“M-hm.” Seungcheol panted a little, lips apart. “I like it.”

“Does it hurt?”

“A little. Don’t stop.”

Jihoon smirked, leaning down to nibble on Seungcheol’s ear. “You want to be fucked, Cheollie?”

The hybrid moaned in reply, unable to do much more. He pulled his fingers from where they gripped the bedsheets to pull them around Jihoon’s waist. “Don’t stop, please don’t stop,” he whispered desperately, hips wriggling against the fingers there.

Jihoon chuckled happily at the encouragement, moving down again to inspect his ministrations closely: he scissored his boyfriend gently at first, then more harshly as the hybrid got used to it, until such times as he was as stretched as he would be for his first time.

Jihoon lubricated his own erection, making sure it was easily visible from where Seungcheol lay.

It made him whine a bit. “Master, please.”

“What, you don’t like seeing it?” Jihoon smirked cruelly. “I thought you used to watch me masturbate. Was it a bit like this?” He stilled his hand around his own cock, throwing his head back and moaning as he thrust his hips forward into his own hand, letting his breath hitch naturally.

“Oh, fuck, oh fuck.” Seungcheol began to crawl back a little, hands reaching for his own member. “Fuck, you’re so-”

“No, no.” Jihoon swatted his hands away defensively, leaning down over Seungcheol’s dick. “This is mine, Cheollie. Are you ready?”

The hybrid took a deep breath. “Yes.”

Jihoon teased his boyfriend’s entrance a little with the slick tip of his cock before sliding it in: Seungcheol jolted a little in surprise for a moment, then let out a loud moan. “Fuck. You’re huge.”

Jihoon smirked a little. “Does it feel good?”

“…think so.”

When Jihoon had finally slid in to the hilt, Seungcheol’s pupils blew wide open with the extraordinary pleasure that came with the stinging pain of being filled like that. He let out a monstrous yowl of pain that quickly drifted into pleasured mutterings as Jihoon simply hovered over him, waiting for him to get used to the feeling.

“Oh, God, oh, God. Jihoon, please, fuck me. Drive into me, oh _fuck_.” Seungcheol looked up, desperate. “Just fucking take me. I want to feel you.”

Jihoon smiled – the feeling of being wanted was seeping through him. He moved down to press his chest against Seungcheol’s, nibbling his collarbone, then his neck, then finally his earlobe. “You’re mine,” he whispered, gently raising his hips a little. “You’re all mine, Seungcheol.”

When he slid back in, it was precisely right: Seungcheol whimpered, but instantly returned. “I’m yours. I belong to you. I’m yours.”

“You’re mine,” was all Jihoon could say as he gently rocked in and out of his boyfriend, slowly letting him get used to the friction. “You’re mine, baby, you’re all mine.”

It sent shivers down Seungcheol’s spine as his body was almost abused, stretched, penetrated – he whimpered and moaned, but every time he answered dutifully, breathlessly, “I’m yours, Jihoon, I’m all yours.”

When Jihoon moved to kiss his boyfriend in the middle of sex, everything changed.

It was as if his master was dripping hot passion into his mouth, and he was lapping it up: Seungcheol began to try and buck up against him, desperate for more of him. “Please,” he whispered against Jihoon’s lips. “Fuck me like it’s our last day on earth.”

“…yes, baby.” Jihoon smirked, kissing him again and again. “I’ll make you scream my name yet.”

Jihoon gripped Seungcheol’s legs, hooking them around his arms and pressed forward again until the hybrid was practically doubled up on himself, and began to thrust: slowly at first, enjoying the tight heat around his cock, and then faster and faster, bucking his hips while keeping his face close to Seungcheol’s.

It didn’t take long for them to come together and hit the right spot: Seungcheol was howling, crying in pleasure, the titillating lust thrilling him as he was bored into over and over until he was finally spilling all over himself and Jihoon, repeating his master’s name over and over until he was hoarse with it. Jihoon didn’t stop pounding his boyfriend until he was sure he was finished orgasming – and then he simply pulled out and spilled himself, all over Seungcheol’s prettily defined chest.

It took them both a few minutes, lying beside each other, to come down from the extreme pleasure they’d just witnessed.

“I fucking love you,” Seungcheol panted, staring at the ceiling.

“…thank you.” Jihoon panted back, unable to keep his eyes off his hybrid.

“You’re my everything.”

“…you, too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Promise.”

 

“I’m sorry, I have to. I’ll be back before you need me again.”

“I always need you.”

Jihoon pressed his forehead to Seungcheol’s – a gesture that, more and more, was becoming a symbol of what emotions lay between them than any words ever could. “My lovely Seungcheol.”

“Jihoon, I’m _asking_ you not to go.”

Jihoon had to close his eyes. Every time he left, it was harder and harder to leave him behind. Even when he knew he’d be back soon.

“Please. For me.”

“Seungcheol, I _have_ to. I don’t want to. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t. You’ll be okay. I promise.”

“Why do you go?! Where do you go, what are you doing outside in the dark? Why are you leaving me alone?!” Seungcheol began to go red in the face, pulling away from his master, ears pricked up in anger. “I don’t want to be alone anymore! I don’t want you to go away! Stop leaving me alone!”

“Seungcheol, I _have_ to go. I’m leaving _now_. Stop throwing a tantrum.” Jihoon picked up his keys.

“I’m still in heat, how can you leave me when I’m-”

“Goodbye, Seungcheol. I’ll be home in about four or five hours.”

“Fuck you!” Seungcheol burst out when the door had closed. “Don’t even fucking bother with coming back!”

 

Usually, Jihoon’s night-time task was far more affronting than this. He usually went in guns blazing, no questions asked, any resistance extinguished immediately, and then took what he pleased and left without so much as a trace.

But no, lately he’d been ordered to be a little more weasel-ish about his ways. He was now walking ramparts and balancing on pipes, sneaking around to be unseen, having to worry about waking up residents or alerting guards to his presence. No, _now_ all of a sudden he had to have the mastered skills of Sir Francis Walsingham, as well as all the talented prowess of murderers like Brutus, Corday, Booth and Oswald.

It wasn’t that he _couldn’t_ be a modern-day Walsingham, it was that he considered it a pain in the ass when, for the last four and a half years, he’d been a kill-everybody-finish-responsibilities-later kind of man.

But then, he supposed, he should have expected this: the government couldn’t keep him a secret forever if he continued on that path.

“The bloody window’s fucking locked,” he whispered into his mouth piece. “I swear when I’m done in here, I’m going to end whoever your security advisor is.”

“Just get the job done,” a voice answered in his earpiece.

Jihoon was attached to the brick wall by little more than the drainage pipe he was settled on: with one hand he managed to slide a series of hairpins from underneath into the window lock, and open it with a crowbar when he found it to be rusted shut.

His landing on the floor was softer than a mouse. He started up the computer on the desk, already inserting a USB stick into the open port.

The programme on the stick automatically went into effect, overlapping the computer’s regular Apple software and installing a newer type that had been specifically designed for Jihoon’s ultimate purposes. With a few brief strokes of the keyboard, the entire computer had been decoded, and data retrieved: all he had to do was copy the relevant documents to a second USB stick, shut down the computer, take away with his memory sticks, and reboot the system to make sure not a trace of his own programme had been left behind.

And it hadn’t.

The shift _down_ the rain pipe was a lot more irritating than going _up_ it, simply because he couldn’t slide down: little supports holding it to the wall made it too painful. Once he was down he was running on the ground, gripping both memory sticks, making his escape long before anybody could ever have noticed his presence.

It was a small room in a sex motel that had been rented out, this time, and the feeling of the place gave Jihoon the creeps, but there his employer sat in his perfect, unrumpled suit, waiting for his own personal Walsingham to return.

“Here.” Jihoon handed over the informative USB stick unhappily, pulling the earpiece from his head. “Next time, get me a fucking ladder. I’m not a chimp.”

“You’re a little… delicate, tonight, eh Woozi?” His employer inserted the USB drive into his own portable laptop, to check their contents. “Something on your mind?”

“…just a fight with my boyfriend is all. I guess.” Jihoon could feel a tenseness in his jaw.

“Oh, you got a new boyfriend, hmm? That’s nice.”

“Yeah. He’s an ass sometimes.”

“What’s his name?”

There was something in the careful way the question had been asked, the way his eyes were set solely on the laptop screen but unmoving, that made Jihoon frown just a little.

“Coups,” he said. “His name is Coups.”

“Coups, huh? Well, as long as you two are happy.” His employer began to read again, smiling. “This is good work. We’ll call you again soon.”

“I’m sure,” the man answered sourly.

“…next time, I may have a little extra for you. I think it’s time you got to meet the brains behind our operation to stifle anti-governmental rebellion.”

“I think so too,” Jihoon answered, folding his arms. “You know, after about five years, one does get impatient for that kind of thing.”

The man chuckled to himself and shook Jihoon’s hand. “Woozi, I’m sure the government is extremely grateful for the services you have provided so far in aiding our country against terrorists and even civil war. Don’t think we ignore your constant loyalty.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He bit his lip. “I need to go get home before my boyfriend does something stupid. He gets that way when he’s left alone.”

“Well, go on then. Have a good night, Woozi.”

“You too.”

Jihoon made his way down to his car, put his hand gun back into the glove compartment and sped off without another word.

When he got home, the front door with its eleven locks was open, a small edge of light coming from inside where the hallway lamp had been left on. On the kitchen counter, Seungcheol had left a note. From the way he’d scribbled it, it was obvious he was furious.

 

_Gone to get my due from Jeonghan._

_Had enough of you. Bye._

_-Seungcheol_

 

Jihoon stood there, frozen for a moment before dialling.

“…hello?”

“Jun. Is Seungcheol there?”

“What?” The man was obviously woken from a deep sleep.

“I said, is Seungcheol in your house?”

“…no? Is he meant to be?” Jun’s voice grew stronger. “…what’s happened?”

Jihoon turned instantly, briskly walking out the front door in the middle of the night.

“He’s gone. My everything is gone.”


	16. The Extra Chip

Jun, Seokmin, and Jihoon spent the rest of the night searching for Seungcheol. Seokmin stood guard at the gates of the Hybrid State Pound, in case raiders brought him in, but no trucks had gone by; Jun scoured any possible routes between his house and Jihoon’s apartment while the master himself conducted a larger sweep of the surrounding city, called every taxi service he could think of, and searching most of the major public transport stations.

Seungcheol was nowhere to be found.

Jihoon had gone to the police office around six AM to report his hybrid missing, but everybody – even the officer on duty – knew that lost hybrids were usually not found again.

Seokmin watched Jihoon disappear into his apartment building, exhausted, as the sun rose on the horizon. He turned to his close friend. “…what do you think?”

Jun slowly shook his head. “I don’t know. If he doesn’t find him…”

“They haven’t been together that long. Half a year? And he didn’t raise Seungcheol, either.”

“Have you seen the way they look at each other?”

Seokmin donned his sunglasses. “…yeah. You’re right.”

“You better get back home to Wonwoo.”

Seokmin smiled warmly. “…he’s napping in the back seat.”

 

Jihoon closed the door behind him, unable to walk into his apartment, unable to go to bed, unable to even blink properly. All he could see was Seungcheol’s face – how upset he was, the distress in his eyes when he realized Jihoon was leaving him _again_. How angry he was when Jihoon left anyway.

_I shouldn’t have left. I should have stayed with him. He’s the most important person in my entire life. Why would I leave him alone? I’m a fucking idiot. I don’t…_

“I don’t deserve somebody like Seungcheol.”

There was a little bump sound. At first, Jihoon wasn’t even sure he’d heard it. Then it bumped again.

Right there, laying in the bathtub, shaking unhappily, lay Seungcheol.

He burst out into tears when Jihoon walked in the doorway.

“You… came… _back_ ,” he burst out, howling through his upset tears. “I-I thought y-you r-really weren’t – weren’t – weren’t going to!”

“Seungcheol.” Jihoon couldn’t comprehend what was happening. “…you’ve been here? The whole time?”

Seungcheol couldn’t stop crying, simply sobbing at the sight of his master.

Jihoon fell to his knees in complete and total exhaustion, slumping on the bathroom floor. “You were here. You were here the whole time. You were here, safe, the whole time.”

The hybrid was still sobbing but had ceased shaking, surprised by the tone and emotion in his master’s little monologue. His cheeks were stained with tears, simply staring. He couldn’t believe Jihoon had actually come back.

Eventually Jihoon managed to get up again, pick his boyfriend up out of the tub and lead him to bed.

“M-master?” Tears were still streaking down Seungcheol’s face in upset confusion.

Jihoon stared at the bed, and then his boyfriend. “…I’m tired. I want to sleep.” It took him a moment to elaborate. “…we sleep together from now on.”

Seungcheol sniffed.

“…do you not want to?”

To answer that, Seungcheol slid in his side of the bed. Jihoon slid into his own side, laying his arm over Seungcheol’s waist like he did all the time.

Both of them had fallen asleep within seconds, with the sun on the rise.

 

When Jihoon woke up and found his hybrid, Seungcheol had already cleaned the entire apartment by himself, even mopping the floors, which he hated, cleaned the toilet and the bathroom, done the laundry, made a call to Jun and was at that moment making breakfast waffles for his master.

“…Cheollie.”

The hybrid turned, elated at first, then suddenly guilt-ridden. He looked down at the floor or the walls, anything that wasn’t Jihoon.

Jihoon moved forward to switch off the kitchen appliances for a moment. At that second, Seungcheol hastily began to name all the cleaning and work he’d done that morning in order to please Jihoon. The way he spoke was agitated and desperate, and barely more than a whisper.

“…s-so, please. I’ll…”

Jihoon blinked slowly, starting to understand why Seungcheol had gotten up to do all those things. “Seungcheol… I am not getting rid of you.” He cupped the man’s face between his own hands. “I am not taking you back, I’m not abandoning you, I’m not leaving you, I’m not kicking you out. You’re not a pet, Seungcheol. You are my _boyfriend_.”

The ghost of hope in Seungcheol’s eyes almost broke Jihoon. “…really?”

“Yes, really. You don’t have to impress me in the hopes that I’ll keep you. You’re my boyfriend. We’re together now. We work things out together from now on.”

Seungcheol was so awed by that kind of benevolence, he wasn’t sure what to say.

“…but please, tell me what happened last night. Before I go mad.”

Seungcheol gulped. “I- I was scared. And angry. But mostly scared. I was all alone again. You were gone. I wanted to go to Jeonghan. He’d take care of me. B-but then, when I wrote the note, I thought… what if you heard me say not to come back? What if you _didn’t_ come back? I was so scared. So scared you wouldn’t come back for me.” This brought new tears to the hybrid’s eyes, striking his cheeks with little waterfalls that his master gently smoothed away. “I – I don’t know what happened. I panicked. I don’t want to lose you. You’re my everything. You’re so important. I love you so much. Then, it took longer than usual, so I thought you weren’t coming back. I forgot the note. I was scared. I was so scared.”

The broken tone of his voice forced Jihoon to wrap his arms around the upset hybrid, gripping him tightly. “I’m sorry,” he answered gently. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to give you a reason to be scared, baby. I’m here now. It’s okay. Please stop crying.”

Seungcheol sniffed a few times before stopping, pulling away and drying his eyes bravely. “You’re here now. I’ll do anything to stay.”

“Come with me. Let’s sit down.” Jihoon sat with his hybrid, massaging his forehead a little against the headache. “Seungcheol, I came back around two AM. Jun, Seokmin and I spent the whole night scouring the city for you. Have you _any_ idea what you put me through?” The look he sent his boyfriend was one of a tortured man. “Have you any idea how afraid I was? I thought you were gone. I thought… I thought _you_ didn’t want _me_. I thought you had left me for a better master.”

“There are no better masters.”

“Seungcheol… I’ve never been that afraid in my life.” Jihoon reached out to grab his hand. “Not even… when Mingyu left me. Please don’t do that again. Please.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I was so scared.”

“Me, too.” Jihoon sniffed once. “I guess we’re just a bunch of scaredy-cats, huh?”

“I’m not a cat,” Seungcheol defied.

“Neither am I. You know what I mean.” Jihoon moved to press his face into Seungcheol’s neck. “I was scared you were hurt, baby. I was scared bad people could have taken you away. I don’t want to get that feeling ever again. Promise me, from now on, we’ll talk about it?”

“…yeah.” Seungcheol gripped his master tightly. “I’m sorry. I’ll do better.”

“Me, too.” Jihoon moved to kiss his boyfriend, dripping all his emotions through the lips, trying to explain with a gesture better than words how much the man in front of him really meant to him.

Seungcheol sighed happily, kissing back just as much. “I love you, boyfriend.”

“You’re my most precious,” he simply answered.

“…I want to tell you, now.”

“…tell me what, Cheollie?”

The hybrid gulped, and hesitated for a while, so Jihoon finished breakfast: they both had waffles, bacon and eggs, both of them staring or holding hands at intervals, just to know that they were there. It was soothing Jihoon’s heart to know that his hybrid had been safe the whole time he had been worried.

Seungcheol drank the last of his milk. “…I want to tell you what happened before you adopted me.”

 

Jihoon was curled up in bed under the sheets, with his hybrid in front of him. Seungcheol had decided it was more comfortable if he didn’t have to see his master’s face, so Jihoon simply backhugged him, keeping his arms tight as a source of comfort.

“…it’s been so long. I’ve been with you so long, it’s hard to remember, sometimes. Being a little guy. My… father, the man who created me… his name was Jang Doyoon.”

“The scientist?”

“Sorry. Can you not interrupt.”

“Sorry.” Jihoon kissed his hybrid’s hair.

“Yeah, the scientist. The leading scientist. The first one to create hybrids and publish the paper on how he did it. But… I was only the second hybrid he ever created himself. I think his first one died. I don’t know. He never spoke about him. But… he told me I was _special_. And different. And he loved me. He really, really loved me. Loved me a lot. So much that he made me in secret and never told anybody, because he didn’t want people scrutinizing me. Asking me too many questions.

“He really did love me. He stroked me and fed me and told me bedtime stories like the Grimm’s book you got me. He held me when I got nightmares. He was my father. He took care of me. He said I was special.

“There was a lot of pain, in the beginning. I was growing really fast. When it got really bad, I’d just lie in bed and cry. He cried with me. He was really sad I was in pain. I was his special boy. I was made for a purpose. I loved him, too. So much. He was my father.

“Eventually I got older and older, and stopped growing so much. The pain stopped. I was really confused. Father went out, sometimes for a really long time. Days. He could leave me alone for days. I wasn’t allowed to go near the windows or open the front door. It was too dangerous. I was too precious to father. Too special.

“One time, when he left, I made him promise he’d tell me _what_ made me special when he got back.” Seungcheol paused for a minute, and the eerie silence in the room made Jihoon tighten his grip.

“It was twenty-seven days before I dared leave the house. I hadn’t eaten in two days. Water and gas had gone off in the apartment we lived in. He hadn’t come back and I was starving. I slinked out in the middle of the night, and father’s scent was everywhere. I thought he was on his way back to me. I followed his scent.”

Seungcheol’s voice began to stutter in sobs. “I didn’t understand. He wasn’t moving. He was white, he was really white, and his smell was everywhere. There was a pool under him. I didn’t understand. Father wasn’t smiling at me. Father wasn’t moving. He wasn’t _moving_. I didn’t understand. I was so scared without him.

“I wandered the streets a lot. I didn’t understand anything. I was so scared. I was sick and hungry. Eventually I just… stopped. My body wouldn’t move anymore. It was just in the back garden of that place. Dogs found me. I was so scared. I was taken away, I didn’t understand. And then, the next day… you were there.”

Jihoon gently stroked his hybrid’s hair, listening patiently.

“…I haven’t been scared. With you. You take care of me.”

“I’ll always take care of you.”

“Every time you leave me alone… I see Father.”

Jihoon gripped him tighter. “I won’t leave you like that. I won’t become like that.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do, baby. Besides… I’m not your father. I’m your boyfriend.”

Seungcheol smiled, all animalistic fears of the past dropping off his face a little as he turned around. “I like that. Having a boyfriend. Having _you_ as my boyfriend.”

“I like it that you’re my boyfriend too.” Jihoon leaned in for a sweet peck. “…I understand what horrible things happened to you. I’ll do my best not to let you down, precious.”

“I love you.”

“I’ll take care of you.”

Seungcheol smiled a little, turning to his master to kiss him. “You really are the best thing that could have happened to me.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m an inexperienced hybrid owner. I’m sure I made a lot of mistakes.”

He shrugged. “Don’t care about that. You take care of me.”

“Well, you’re my boyfriend, and a very precious person to me.”

“Can I ask a favour?”

“Sure, baby. What is it?”

“Father always used to rub my neck, here, at the back. It was really comforting. Now and then… maybe… could you…”

Jihoon rubbed his palm over the area instantly, smiling when Seungcheol grinned in relief.

“Feels nice,” he grinned, tail wagging.

Jihoon continued for a moment before frowning a little, rubbing his palm a little harder. “Seungcheol?”

“Yes?”

“…where is your chip?”

“There, in my neck.” Seungcheol pressed on the chip, and Jihoon rubbed over it experimentally. “Yeah, there.”

“Okay.” Jihoon frowned a little, rubbing more and more. “So if that’s your chip… what am I feeling way up here?”

 

Luckily, Jun was working late: he had no problem inviting Jihoon and his hybrid in, and taking Seungcheol in for an x-ray. Seungcheol was left to read his Grimm’s book with interest while Jihoon and Jun spoke on the other side of the room.

Jun put up the x-rays on the light board. “That is Seungcheol’s ownership chip. It’s emanating an extremely low electro-magnetic field, all ownership chips do. It’s this that worries me.” He pointed to a second square just behind the vertebrae.

“…what is it?” Jihoon asked quietly.

“I don’t know. From the size and shape, I’d say it’s another chip, but it’s got no EM-field whatsoever. Like a dead chip. A dud in the water. It doesn’t seem to be harming him at all, or inhibiting his growth or any functions. He’s a perfectly healthy hybrid… he just as two chips.”

“Maybe he was inserted with the first, but it malfunctioned, so he got a second,” Jihoon reasoned.

“No. They don’t insert chips so close to the brain. See, the nerves of the entire body run up and down the spinal cord. This chip is stuck in so much sinew and nerves, it’s a dangerous place to plant a chip in a hybrid. They’re never put there. No, this chip was put in him very young, before he was fully formed. It’s not-”

Jun’s soft voice was interrupted by his phone: he took one glance at the caller and answered. “Jeonghan?”

There was incoherent, loud screaming on the other end.

“Jeonghan.” Jun gripped the phone, eyes widening, blood draining from his face. “Jeonghan, Jeonghan!”

Seungcheol bounded over all too quickly.

The group could only make out a single sentence.

 _“They took Joshua and Minghao!_ ”


	17. the Hybrid State Pound Facility

Jun’s voice was low and reassuring, strong, so as not to give away how broken he was as Jihoon sped through the streets. “No. No, Jeonghannie, baby. This was not your fault. If you had tried to save them, you would have just been taken away, too. You did the right thing, baby. You did the right thing. I’m proud of you.”

Nobody bothered waiting until the engine was cut, simply darting out of the car and into the house with its broken door. Jeonghan sat in a corner, sobbing, terrified.

“Go downstairs into the basement,” Jihoon muttered tersely. “All of you. Take Cheollie. Don’t move until I come back.”

“Where are you going?!” Jun and Seungcheol chorused in fear.

“I’m going to get Minghao and Joshua back.”

“Jihoon, don’t be silly.”

“Jun, trust me.” The fierce passion was ablaze in Jihoon’s eyes. “I’m going to get those boys back here. Where they belong.”

Seungcheol leaned forward to touch his master, and suddenly he was the only person in the room, the only person in the world that ever mattered to him.

“Jihoon. Please.”

Jihoon gripped him forward and kissed him: it began rough but soon became sweet and soft, a genuinely happy kiss, one that felt just a little too much like a goodbye kiss. “Seungcheol, my baby, my everything. I’m sorry. You won’t be alone this time, but I have to go. Now, more than ever. I am going to fetch those boys and bring them home. Just like I saved you. Do you understand, baby?”

“…yeah.”

“Seungcheol, I _will_ come back for you.”

“I won’t be alone, right?”

“You won’t be alone.”

“…I love you,” Seungcheol whispered, pressing his head harshly against Jihoon’s. “Please don’t get hurt.”

“I’ll do my best, baby.” Jihoon gave him another kiss before opening the hatch in the kitchen, getting everybody downstairs in the basement before locking it and scrambling back into the waiting car to do an inventory of what guns and gadgets he still had there.

 

By the time Jihoon hit the Hybrid State Pound, the sun had gone down and the world was very quickly growing dark. He parked blocks away, filled his bag with everything he had, changed into his black sweat suit and ran for it.

The gates were unguarded but for the small port house, and it was far too easy to sneak past the back, undetected in the dark. The facility was huge, several stories high, and surrounded by parking lots on all sides, mostly deserted.

Getting inside the facility would be a problem.

It was absolutely smooth – there were no brick indents, no rain pipes, no balconies, no _nothing_. It was one large block of perfect cement. Which meant that he was going to have to mess around with security camera footage and tranq his way in, and he only had eight darts.

The security detail in the lobby was easy – two men, no workers. It must have been long past home time. Jihoon stood, surrounded by tranquilized men with Tasers as he fumbled with some fibre optic cords until he was sure he could repeat the last 5 minutes of footage over and over. He left his tiny, portable, self-made super-computer there on the ground, in charge of looping the footage each time as he casually sauntered towards a pillar, impervious to camera detail.

The pillar had a list of what was on which floor: none of it seemed very interesting. There were no big black letters marking out an _incarceration room_ , in any case. The second level was a computer logistics room, so Jihoon figured that was as good a place as any to start.

Once he stepped into the elevator, though, he stared at the buttons.

 _Hmm, interesting. Officially, this building only goes up. So I wonder what’s on the sub levels?_ Jihoon punched in the _-1_ button and waited for the doors to close.

The -1 level didn’t seem to hold much, so within seconds he was sneaking around to get back to the elevator. -2 yielded similar results, but the third underground level of the facility was a jackpot goldmine.

There were no security details here. There was no need.

This level was different than the others: it was further underground, deeper, and when the elevator doors opened it had been constructed very differently.

Jihoon walked out on what seemed to be a balcony that wavered far off the ground. The cavern had to be at least fifty feet from ceiling to floor, and twice that size from left to right. Jihoon stared in awe at the engineering that had gone into excavating the room – it seemed to be hewn out of a dark blueish rock substance that covered walls and ceiling.

In front of him stood rows upon rows of hybrids.

They were harnessed into seats that looked like they belonged on rollercoasters: they simply lay in padded restraints, unmoving. They all seemed to be asleep, stacked upon each other like some sickening horror movie. Jihoon counted neatly.

There were ten hybrids hovering over each other, so each compartment was ten rows high. In the length, there had to be at least fifty. That meant that every rack held 500 hybrids. Five racks were full – the other eight lay empty, awaiting new prisoners.

With as little noise as possible Jihoon took a flight of metal stairs down to the ground, where he could only run in awe of the complex. It was the largest place he’d ever been in. And amongst at least 25.000 hybrids, how was he supposed to find Minghao and Joshua?

Every rack of 500 hybrids had its own computer at the base: Jihoon had hacked into three before finally finding one that held a ram hybrid. There were no other details but height, weight, and date of creation, which didn’t give Jihoon much to go by, but it was a start. He ran for quite a while to get to the other end of the rack where Minghao was the last hybrid on the bottom row.

“Minghao.” Jihoon petted the hybrid’s cheek, whispering. “Minghao. You need to wake up. Minghao!”

At first, he searched for a latch, something to undo the restraints and pull Minghao out of his bonds. Instead, what he found was a small needle that was injected into the poor hybrid’s bicep.

Jihoon clambered over the restraints, balancing himself on the back of Minghao’s chair, gently pulling the needle out the back of the chair until it no longer had any chance of piercing the young man’s skin. Jihoon somersaulted through the air to stand again as Minghao began to wake up.

Jihoon quickly pressed his hand over the murmuring hybrid’s mouth. Minghao was a noisy hybrid when waking up, and he didn’t need any extra attention. It took five or six whole minutes but then Minghao was awake, alert, and staring at Jihoon in surprise.

Jihoon leaned in, whispering softly. “Minghao. I’m going to take my hand away. You must, be, quiet.”

The hybrid blinked and Jihoon gently took his hand away.

“…how? What?” were the first things Minghao breathed.

“I’m here to get you out. Jun and Jeonghan are sick with worry.” Jihoon searched for a latch from the harness again for a moment before asking. “Are you alright?”

“… _I_ am.”

Jihoon froze.

“They took Joshua.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. Down that hallway.” He nodded to where the huge cavern was only accessed by a small cave-like hallway, closed over with a thick, lead-lined door. “…I don’t know if he’s…”

“Minghao.” Jihoon cupped the hybrid’s skull. “You’re very brave.”

Minghao shook his head a little.

“I’m going to see where Joshua is. Then I’m coming back for you. And we’re going to get out of here alive.” Jihoon’s voice and mouth were tense. “But you need to pretend to be asleep here until then. Can you do that?”

Minghao gulped a moment and nodded. “Find Joshua.”

“I will. I’ll come back for you.” Jihoon patted the hybrid’s head, wary of his horns and then took off, running across the wide expanse to the lead-lined door. It wasn’t locked.

The hallway went on for a long time, and Jihoon wasn’t sure how much time he had before security woke up or somebody found them like that. So he had to run, and his lungs were already heaving, limbs already burning.

The hallway mouthed out into two, separate, unmarked hallways. A fork in the road.

Jihoon stood by the fork, leaning against the blue rock, panting for breath. _Which way? Which way? If they find me, I’m dead. Which way?_

He chose to go right.

A few mere steps down that hallway were horrors that Jihoon had never wanted to see. The walls were all made of glass, easy to see through into the laboratories. What stood against the glass walls, between scientist’s computers and desks, made him feel dizzy.

The laboratories were filled with tubes. Thick, glass tubes you could see into. Some were filled with pink liquids, others with venom greens, and some were transparent: in all floated the bodies of babies. Many of them were yet underdeveloped, embryos, foetuses, bobbing lifelessly in thick liquids. Some were alive. Some… Jihoon couldn’t be sure. To see them made his stomach flip. Cold shivers treaded down his spine as he walked on.

He knew this was how hybrids were created. Human embryos were created in test tubes, DNA grafted into them. To see it was a horrific splatter of reality.

There were no doors into this laboratory, so all he could do was keep going, feeling more and more nauseous at the sights that he passed. Small babies. Big babies. Emulating in test tubes. Slowly, as he went on, the creatures in tubes began to change.

At first there were minor problems – a baby missing a little toe, or a fingernail. Then it got worse.

Some of the clumps of cells in the tubes couldn’t even be called babies. They were disfigured meshes, with heads growing out of stomachs and arms coming out of ears. Some were gently bleeding out into their tubes, suffocating themselves. All of them still, lifeless, mismade creatures.

Then suddenly the horrific, sickening walk of death was over. Tubes made way for cages.

Many of the creatures inside were dead. Whether mostly human or mostly animal, almost all were filled with dead carcasses. In some, blood and pus seemed to ooze from the body.

The door seemed to haunt Jihoon, staring him in the face. He would have to open the door to find Joshua. And that also meant going _into_ the laboratory. It meant seeing. Possibly smelling.

Jihoon took a deep breath and walked in.

He kept going the way he had been, turning his back to all the creatures that had been messed up. His brain was working in double time.

The government wasn’t just incarcerating unwanted hybrids. They were _creating their own._ And worse than that. They were _experimenting_ on them.

Two kennels stood next to each other. One large, one small. It was too dark to see right, so Jihoon pulled out a flashlight.

The creature in the smaller kennel turned to face the light. He could only have been a small boy, maybe eight years old: he had beautiful rounded ears and a long, fluffy tail. His face was chubby: so chubby, in fact, that all his features seemed to disappear behind his cheeks.

“You came,” the creature whispered.

In the next kennel lay Joshua. Jihoon knew because he could see the gold glittering off the hybrid’s back.

The small boy in the kennel looked up at Jihoon. “He’s very weak,” he whispered. “They messed with his brain.”

Jihoon got down on all fours. “Hey. What’s your name?”

The hybrid stared a moment. “Number 42059B.”

Jihoon blinked.

“You’re Jihoon.”

The man scowled. “How do you know that?”

The tiny hybrid boy shrugged. “I just do. You’re here to help us get out.”

Jihoon thought about that, but nodded – the mystery could wait until they were safe at home. “Yeah.”

“Unlock my cage. I’ll help you get him out.”

Jihoon undid the boy’s cage and he sprang out with a surprisingly large bound onto a near-by desk. Then he trotted forward fearlessly, helping to undo Joshua’s cage.

Joshua was too lethargic to wake up – he’d been hurt too much, experimented on too much.

“Come on.” The small hybrid boy bounded down towards the door. “We only have ten minutes to get out of here before they find security.”

Jihoon grappled with the ocelot man on his back, hunching him. “…ten minutes will never be enough. I need to get Minghao, too.”

The small boy’s tail lashed through the air for a moment, before he gasped. “You’re going to free them all!”

“What?”

He opened the door and led the way out. “It’s brilliant!”

“What is?”

“Releasing all the hybrids so that they overwhelm security. All the hybrids here have owners they can go back to, free at last. Yes. Good plan. I’ll help. I have no owner to go to. But I’ll help. Okay?” And with that, the small boy of a hybrid bound forth on all fours, past the sickening horrors of test tubes with an amazing speed, a tiger’s tail lashing on behind him.


	18. Calm Before the Storm

Minghao stared in surprise when Jihoon put Joshua down on the floor, sliding up to the computer at the end of his rack. “What happened to him?”

“…not sure yet.” Jihoon’s fingers flew over the keyboard, eyes scanning lines and lines of data in an attempt to find an override command. “Damn it.”

“What is it?”

“I can’t find a command to open up all these hybrids at once.”

“You excuse me?” Minghao gawked.

“We’re all getting out of here.” Jihoon looked up towards the ceiling at the thousands of trapped hybrids. “All of us, together.”

Minghao just stared.

“Main computer is at that wall,” the small tiger hybrid said, pointing.

Jihoon gripped Minghao’s hand. “When you get free, can you carry Joshua?”

“Yeah. He’s not heavy. Go.”

Jihoon ran, his steps echoing through the cavern, racing against time, the little tiger hybrid keeping up with him in leaps and bounds on all fours, tiger ears twitching upon his head.

A siren went off the moment Jihoon broke through their computer’s last defences – it was a loud, shrill, screeching sound, urgently wailing. There was an intruder in this facility.

“Come on, come on,” Jihoon growled, fingers working in double-time. “Come on, come on!”

Then suddenly it was done: dozens of racks began to open on the bottom: as soon as they were open and needles were pulled out, hybrids began to crawl forth as the rows and rows of hybrids stuck on higher levels began to come down to the ground and free their prisoners as well.

It took a few minutes for all the hybrids to shake their heads or ruffle their feathers, and then the stampede came. Thousands of hybrids flocked to the fire exit, stairs that ran in the corner of the room all the way up and out to the surface: Jihoon waited for Minghao, gripped one of Joshua’s arms, and they followed hotly.

No security detail could stop the rush of hybrids.

The fire escape had been foolishly designed to come out topside, on the outside of the facility, on the grounds: it took two bulky, strong hybrids to rip the steel gate apart, tearing a hole in it. The stampede made it there, but many of the hybrids were still dull after being plugged into their needles for so long.

“Go home!” Jihoon screamed, more and more hybrids running through. “Go home to your masters! Leave nobody behind!”

The small tiger hybrid seemed excited at the escape, jumping up and down a little before looking up at Jihoon. “Where do I go to?”

“Kid, you’re coming with us. Come on, keep up.”

The run down several streets was long and arduous – Minghao was sick and tired from whatever drug had been injected into him, Joshua was still out for the count and the small boy hybrid could only go so fast, brows furrowed and lip between his teeth in utter concentration. Joshua took up all of the back seat: Minghao sat in the passenger place, the tiny tiger in his lap.

“Buckle up.” Jihoon started the engine. “We’re going home.”

 

Jihoon lifted up the hatch, scaring the men downstairs. “Guess who brought the family home?”

Jeonghan was the first to shoot out of the basement, hitting Minghao in a hug like a brick, already crying: when Jun soon followed, the feline moved to pour over Joshua’s sleeping body on the couch.

Seungcheol hugged Jihoon tightly as soon as he was level, gripping the smaller man. “Jihoon, thank God you’re safe. I love you.”

“Hey, baby.” Jihoon kissed him deeply, and was kissed deeply in return. “Told you I’d be back.”

“I love you.”

“Thank you.” Jihoon smiled up. “My Cheollie. I’m back.”

“Welcome back.”

“What’s happened to him?!”

“Don’t worry, Jeonghan. He’s just asleep.” Jihoon took a deep breath, tired. “And where’s-? Oh, here.” Jihoon offered the small tiger hybrid a hand and walked forward. “This here is… uh…”

“Number 42059B!” the hybrid smiled happily.

Jun stared. Jun stared some more. Jeonghan squinted in surprise when Jun got up. “Oh my God,” the man whispered. “…Oh my _God_.”

The tiger hybrid tilted his head. “Why am I going to be taken to a hospital?”

Jun blanched.

“Jun, what is it?”

“…it’s Soonyoung.”

“What?”

“This hybrid. This is Soonyoung.”

“… eh-”

“Seokmin’s first hybrid!”

“I thought he was an adult.”

“He _was_.” Jun fell to his knees. “Soonyoung? Soonyoung, what happened to you?”

The eight-year-old tiger hybrid frowned, confused. “Huh?”

“Soonyoung? Don’t you remember me? Or, well, maybe you wouldn’t. But… Seokmin, you remember him, your master, right?”

The tiger hybrid took a step back. “I don’t know you, or what you’re talking about.”

“Hey, don’t worry.” Jihoon petted the tiger’s sandy hair. “Jun wouldn’t hurt you. Would you, Jun?”

“ _Hurt_ him? He’s my friend!”

“I don’t know you!”

Jihoon lifted the hybrid in his arms. “Hey, take it easy. Jun?”

Jun stood. “…I need to get him to the lab. Take some DNA samples. Make sure it’s him.”

 

The tiger hybrid seemed willing enough to do whatever Jihoon said, allowing blood to be taken, x-rays and MRI and CAT scans. All the hybrids were with them: Jun certainly wasn’t leaving them at home alone again, and Joshua had woken up with little more wrong with him than a splitting head-ache. Seungcheol and Minghao were busy entertaining the small child while Jun and Jihoon consulted.

“It’s the exact same DNA as the DNA I have on file for Soonyoung. That’s him.”

“He doesn’t know you,” Jihoon said slowly.

“Here.” Jun pointed at what was obviously a scan of the brain. “Look there, this is the part of the brain that deals with memory. See these dark shadows? They’re not supposed to be there. I can’t say for sure, but it’s like something’s been put into him to disrupt the connections between his memories.”

“…how do you fix something like that?”

Jun looked up. “…I’d need a sample of the chemical used.”

“You want to _drill_ inside his _brain_?”

Jun gave him a guilty look. “…maybe I can find some traces of it in his blood.”

“You’d better. I’m not letting you drill into a child’s skull.”

Jun took a deep breath. “I’ll stay here with the gang if you want to go grab some food? I’ll give you my pass. Canteen is down the hall to the left.”

“Can I take Seungcheol?”

“Yeah.”

“Cheollie!” Jihoon took Jun’s hospital pass. “Let’s go get some grub for breakfast.”

The hybrid bounded up happily and the two walked to get breakfast for the whole gang, simply piling up fruit and sandwiches and returning with them, having a very jolly family time.

They all decided that Seokmin couldn’t know about the tiger hybrid – not until they could figure out what was going on. So their weekly club night was cancelled as Jun worked in the lab every day to try and fix whatever had gone wrong in Soonyoung’s skull. In the meantime, the small tiger was given to Seungkwan and Vernon to take care of for a while. And so, everything seemed to be going a little better than before.

 

Jihoon kissed his hybrid deeply, moaning into his mouth simply because he knew it drove the man crazy. Seungcheol groaned back, panting harshly as he tried to deal with the adrenaline rush, growling and gripping his master’s bare shoulders. “Master, please.”

“No.”

“Please!”

“I said, no.” Jihoon chuckled. “Now let me get up and take a shower.”

“…okay.” Seungcheol rolled off unhappily and allowed Jihoon access to his own bathroom.

Jihoon locked the door with a happy chuckle, shaking his head. The hybrid really was too much. Then again, now that his heat was over, it was an encouraging thought that Seungcheol still craved Jihoon’s body.

After a few moments of deliberation and turning the shower on, Jihoon unlocked the door again.

Seungcheol didn’t resist for long: after a few minutes the bathroom door was opened just a little, the hybrid peeking at his master.

Jihoon stood as he always did, facing the wall: one arm braced up against the tiles, the other down by his hip, fist curled around his cock. The man didn’t even turn. “Seungcheol… if you want to help me, you’re more than welcome. It’s you I’m fantasizing about anyway.”

The hybrid whimpered, opening the door a bit more. “How did you know?”

Jihoon turned, cock only half hard. “I know you.”

Seungcheol quickly stripped of his clothing and joined Jihoon in the shower, pressing him up against the tiles, kissing him deeply: he enjoyed being taller than his master, and he enjoyed the fact that the man could be merciless when it came to seduction. He simply tried his luck, kissing Jihoon until the man began to smile under his lips, and Seungcheol knew he’d lost again.

“Cheollie, you really are scandalous. You’ve learned to kiss unbearably well.”

Seungcheol smirked. “I bet I could kiss you unbearably well in other places, too.”

Jihoon raised an eyebrow, amused. “You’ve never offered to give me oral before.”

“You don’t want me to?”

“Oh, I want you to.” Jihoon smirked, tickling his fingertips down the front of Seungcheol’s toned body. “I just didn’t think it was something you were into.”

“You do it to me. Is it nice?”

Jihoon chuckled. “Shit taste, great feeling.”

Seungcheol whimpered a little, sucking a hickey onto his master’s neck. “I want to try.” Slowly his mouth made its way down until he was on his knees, gently tugging on Jihoon’s cock with a few fingers, staring a little at it. “Master?”

“Yes, Cheollie?”

He looked up with a smile. “I love you.” And with that he pulled his lips around the tip of Jihoon’s cock and began. It took him a while to get the hang of it without being messy, but Jihoon gently guided him until he got it right.

The feeling was amazing, to have Seungcheol’s thick, soft lips wrapped around him, and the sight of it was absolutely obscene. Seungcheol’s eyes closed, eyelashes brushing his cheeks as he gently bobbed along the shaft, eventually kissing down it and then sucking again, smirking with every twitch Jihoon gave him. He moaned lustily, growing harder and harder himself as he sucked on, enjoying it the most when Jihoon bucked into his mouth errantly.

“This takes a lot of energy,” he groaned eventually, pulling off.

Jihoon was too far gone to really pay that much heed: he switched the water off and hurried to dry himself and his boyfriend before leading the man back to bed.

Seungcheol seemed very happy with this development, trying to kiss his boyfriend whenever possible.

Jihoon sat on the bed first, pulling Seungcheol in roughly for a heated kiss: the taller man moaned, unable to contain himself as he pressed his naked body against Jihoon’s. He ground his hips against Jihoon’s rubbing, moaning. “Master, please fuck me,” he panted hotly, knowing it would rile up his partner.

Jihoon growled, gripping him, digging his fingertips into Seungcheol’s supple flesh. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

Seungcheol sat up, rubbing his ass over Jihoon’s cock, letting it slide between his cheeks. He gave his boyfriend an entirely innocent expression. “I don’t know _what_ you’re talking about. I just want your huge, sweet, fucking _delicious_ cock in my ass.”

Jihoon snarled again, pulling him down for another rough, sloppy kiss. “You want to be fucked, baby?”

“Yes,” Seungcheol panted between kisses.

“You want to be _taken_?”

“Yes!”

“Then you’re going to have to do it yourself.” Jihoon pulled the lubricant from the bedside table and handed it to his hybrid cruelly. “You’re going to prepare _yourself_. So that I can see it. And then you’re going to ride me.”

“R-ride?”

“M-hm. Like you saw in that porno you watched last night on your phone when you thought I was asleep, and you were jacking off and whispering my name.”

The man went bright red. “You were awake?!”

“I heard it all. Now I want to _see_ it all. You’ll be good and do that for me, won’t you?”

Seungcheol slowly poured a little lube into his hand and began to pump his cock with an obedient nod. “Y-yes… is… is it erotic? Do you like seeing it?”

“Yeah, baby.” Jihoon’s hands automatically grabbed behind his boyfriend to massage his cheeks. “Very erotic. Touching yourself so indecently.”

Eventually Seungcheol moved to the back, trying to prepare himself that way: he moaned a little at his own ministrations, unable to keep his eyes off Jihoon, making sure to buck up and whimper at appropriate times. This wasn’t so much about preparing himself as it was about driving Jihoon as crazy as possible.

Seungcheol’s cock just bobbed there forlornly as the man prepared himself, vocalizing every feeling as he twitched and flinched, his own fingers driving in and out of him. He panted, he moaned, he whimpered, and he incessantly begged for Jihoon to end his own self-inflicted torture and just _fuck_ him. He wanted to feel the harshness of Jihoon’s sizable erection sliding in and out of him, egging him on until he was fit to burst.

Seungcheol underestimated Jihoon’s patience.

Eventually Jihoon pulled his boyfriend forward, lining up and slowly letting him down: Seungcheol winced, but there was relatively little pain, eventually sliding down until he was perfectly seated.

Jihoon smiled at Seungcheol from under him, amazed at how lucky he was. Seungcheol was a beautiful man – strong, lean, bronze like a God, thick and incredibly intelligent with an amazing mind. And the way his lips fell apart as he breathed Jihoon’s name like it was the only thing keeping him on this earth, the way his head tilted back in innate pleasure, the shadow of his exuberantly long eyelashes falling across his cheeks, the deep, heavenly sound of his voice…

Jihoon considered himself incredibly blessed to witness Seungcheol’s life.

Then the man moved, and there was no time left for awe: Seungcheol rotated his hips and suddenly Jihoon was bucking up uncontrollably into his boyfriend, intent on giving him no quarter. The feeling of Seungcheol around his cock was too hot and too tight and his face was too fucking beautiful to leave as it was.

The poor man did what he could, actively bouncing on his boyfriend’s cock – it didn’t take long for Jihoon to wrap his fist around Seungcheol’s member, tugging furiously as his thrusts began to stutter, Seungcheol falling down onto his hips over and over.

Jihoon came first, the sizzling feeling of fireworks racing through his body as he filled his boyfriend. His hand still tugged furiously.

“Jihoon! Ji… Jihoon!”

“Cum for me, baby.”

Seungcheol threw his head back and obeyed, shooting thick streams of cum all over Jihoon’s chest over and over.


	19. Empty Gardens

“…I’m scared.”

Jun glanced over at Jihoon. It was a look that said, _me too, kiddo. If this doesn’t work, I could kill you._

Vernon’s wolfy tail wagged to and fro a little, cuddling the small boy from behind. “It’s okay. Big brother’s right here with you.”

“This will give me memories back?”

“Yeah.”

Jun carefully inserted the syringe and injected a little of the fluid into Soonyoung’s body, to make him sleep, first – then he injected him again with a little of the special chemical designed to dissolve the factors that were closing off his memories. The little boy slumped against Vernon, starting to sleep.

“So, now we can tell you what’s up with him,” Seungkwan said casually, snacking on some crackers. “He sees the future.”

Jun and Jihoon turned to him.

“No, seriously. He gets flashes. His eyes roll back into his head. It’s how he knew that you were coming to rescue him. He sees flashes of the future. Whatever those scientists did to him, they sure reaped some nice-ass benefits.”

“And you didn’t feel like this was important to tell us?”

“Didn’t want to say it in front of the kid. He, uh… he gets really tense. I’m looking forward to the next lottery though.”

Jihoon carried the little tiger hybrid to the car and placed him in the back seat. “I’m still confused. Soonyoung was a fully grown man when he was taken.”

“He was a teenager, so close. Soonyoung was about seventeen when he was taken away, and that was years ago.” Jun nodded at the sleepy eight-year-old in the back seat. “His cells are old. Older than a kid’s. About the same as yours or mine.”

Everybody drove back to Jun’s house together – Seokmin and Wonwoo were waiting on the porch. Jun hustled them inside, in order to give them an orientation on what they were about to witness, and Jihoon simply pulled the small boy from his seat once they were safe.

“…they’re ready. Bring him in.”

Jihoon handed Seungcheol his phone to switch off and carried the sleeping tiger boy into the house. Wonwoo was bolted to his seat, and Seokmin was ready to leap off the cushion, but both of them just stared as Jihoon walked in with Soonyoung in his arms.

Seokmin’s eyes were blown wide, unable to blink, unable to breathe as he sat there and stared at the small boy in Jihoon’s arms.

“It’s like I told you,” Jun said softly. “We had to put him in a chemical sleep. He should wake up in an hour or so.”

Seokmin eventually found it in him to stretch two shaking arms out, eyes in a shocked, traumatized, silent plead for the boy. He couldn’t rip his eyes from the small form.

Jihoon smiled and gently lowered Soonyoung into Seokmin’s arms.

The moment Soonyoung’s full, sleeping face was in view, that was when the tears began to roll. Seokmin breathed in choppy, brief moments, holding the little boy. Jihoon sat on the ground just like everybody else, watching Seokmin’s emotions rise to the surface.

“He’s… _back_.” Seokmin choked out a sob, sniffling, unable to rip his eyes off Soonyoung. “Look at him. Look at how beautiful he is. Look at his eyes, his little cheeks, his ears, God, look at him. Have you ever seen a boy this beautiful?”

Jihoon automatically searched to grip Seungcheol’s hand with a happy smile.

“My Soonyoungie. You know, he really hated bananas? I couldn’t figure it out. He said he hated them. Couldn’t stand the taste, the texture, the smell… I used to roast them with pieces of chocolate and little marshmallows, but he wouldn’t go near them.” Seokmin couldn’t take his eyes off the little boy. “My precious little banana-hater. Regressed to when we were only children. My boy. I’ll never leave you again, Soonie.” Seokmin wouldn’t let the boy go, not even to wipe his own tears. “I’ll never, ever let them take you again, baby.”

Seungcheol and Jun went off to make lunch together; Joshua, Vernon and Jeonghan went outside to play with butterflies; Minghao went to read a book, and Jihoon simply sat there in awe of the love that Seokmin and now Wonwoo were pouring over the sleeping body.

“I love you,” Seokmin whispered eventually, pressing his lips to Soonyoung’s forehead. “I love you, Soonie. I never told you, back then. I thought it wasn’t masculine. You told me plenty, but I never told you. I love you. I always did. I always will. You’re my one true love, baby. The only one for me.”

It took a while, but eventually the small boy began to wriggle in his sleep; twenty minutes later he began to murmur until he was waking up, hands and feet swinging.

“Seokmin!” His eyes were still shut. “Seokmin! Seokmin! Save me! Seokmin!”

“Baby.” Tears were pouring from his eyes again. “Baby, wake up. You’ve got to wake up now, Soonie.”

The tiger hybrid came to with a start, practically jumping out of Seokmin’s capable hands, trembling in fright. When he finally laid eyes on Seokmin he winced for a bit, then broke out into tears, throwing his arms around Seokmin’s neck. “Minnie!”

Seokmin let out the most outrageous sob, practically screaming it into Soonyoung’s shoulder.

“Minnie, Minnie, I’m back, I’m back.” Soonyoung’s voice seemed changed – it was still the voice of a little boy, but it seemed like it was filled with the wisdom of a thirty-year-old. “Minnie.”

“Soonie.”

“We should give them some privacy.”

Everybody followed Jun out into the garden: the hybrids played with each other while their masters sat together in a patch of sunlight.

“Yup. Sometimes it’s trivial stuff, like _that bag is going to fall off the table_ and at other times he predicts phonecalls, letters, anything.” Seungkwan smiled. “It’s interesting. He hasn’t been wrong yet.”

“…so what are they doing to the hybrids?” Jihoon shuddered. “Soonyoung’s been regressed by more than a decade, Joshua and Seungcheol both grew at a ridiculously accelerated rate, and now Soonyoung can see the future? What _possible_ gain could there be from that?”

Jun thought about it. “…could be making an army.”

“No.” Seungkwan shook his head. “The government is spreading the idea that hybrids are bad and filthy and wrong. If they wanted to create an army, any army, they would be endorsing hybrids, not shaming them.”

The three sat there, staring at each other.

“…no point in guessing.” Jun stood and stretched. “Can’t do anything, for now, but protect our loved ones. Jeonghan, here!” He raced forward and jumped to catch the Frisbee, instantly letting it fly again towards Vernon.

Seungkwan grinned at Jihoon, and the two quickly joined the game.

It was nice, for once, to not be worrying over the state of affairs, the government’s list of rebels he was constantly offing, or the safety of his boyfriend. Jihoon could simply relax, playing in the summer sun for a while.

By the time they were back inside, things seemed to be a little better again between Seokmin and his hybrids: Soonyoung was more or less back to his normal self, but the process of freeing his memories had taken a heavy toll on the poor boy. All the pain, fright and unhappiness he’d endured over the years of separation from Seokmin had taken its toll, and after all, he was still stuck in an eight-year-old’s body.

It was obvious over dinner that for Seokmin, Soonyoung and even Wonwoo, the road back to restoration would be very long and very difficult, but there was no mistaking the regard in their eyes as they looked at each other. Soonyoung’s retrieval had meant that Seokmin could start to forgive himself for his failure to save him long ago.

Jihoon looked over the table at his hybrid. Seungcheol was eating and talking happily, tail wagging, ears perked up. He was smiling, eyes twinkling, skin glowing. The happiest Jihoon had ever seen him – the most relaxed kind of happy.

Jihoon’s hands curled harder around his cutlery with sudden resolve. _Nobody_ was ever going to hurt Seungcheol again. Nobody, ever. He would make sure of that.

After dinner, Jihoon took Seungcheol out for a walk around the neighbourhood. They managed to find an abandoned children’s playground, so Jihoon pushed his boyfriend on the swings for a bit. “Hey… Seungcheol?”

“Yes?”

Jihoon slowed the swing down until it came to a halt. “I want to tell you a story.”

“A story?” Seungcheol turned to where Jihoon was seating himself in the next swing over. “What kind of story?”

“…it’s not a _fun_ story.”

“…I don’t like sad stories.”

Jihoon smiled a little. “It has a nice ending, though, if you can wait patiently for it.”

“I’ll wait.”

Jihoon took a deep breath, gently moving to and fro from the balls of his toes to his heels. “…long ago there was a little boy. His mom worked for the government and his dad worked for the police. They were a really happy family while he was very young. But when he was still a very young child, things started to… change a little. His dad and mom got into a really bad fight one day – and his dad left. His dad came back… after a while. But his mom and dad kept fighting, screaming at each other every night, and the little boy didn’t understand what it was all about.

“Then, one day, some very bad men tried to kidnap the little boy.”

Jihoon fell silent for a moment until Seungcheol gripped his hand.

“I love you, Jihoon. Continue.”

Jihoon smiled a little, and when he didn’t continue he was pulled to sit on Seungcheol’s lap. “Continue.”

“…the bad men managed to take the boy away, but very soon his dad came to rescue him. He’s a police man, remember. His dad managed to get him out of the building where he was being held, but… he’d already been shot. His dad died that night, and his mom… well, she cried a lot. Five days later, the boy’s mom picked him up from pre-school early. Said they were going away on a trip together. She drove past their house. It was burning.

“…his mom got the little boy all the way to Seoul city. They stayed in a hotel room for the night. When the little boy woke up… his mom was gone. Just gone. Poof. Like a cloud of smoke.” Jihoon paused again, looking down. “He was five years old at the time.”

Seungcheol nuzzled into Jihoon’s neck.

“It was government officials who took care of the boy. He went to an orphanage, but spent little time there. After school he would go to sports practice – judo, boxing, tai bo, any martial arts possible – and after that, he would go to a special secret government building where he would train. People there were nice to him. They gave him treats, encouraged him… they were like parents to him. Eventually, when he was grown up and fully trained, they asked that he would be a spy for them.

“The people who had tried to kidnap him, who had killed his father and taken his mother… those were rebels. They were constantly trying to destroy not just the government, but the entire country. Those people had to be stopped, no matter what. So, now that the boy was trained… well. Revenge is a very powerful emotion.” Jihoon stopped a moment to look up at Seungcheol. “I hope you don’t think less of me, Cheollie. I did what I had to, to survive, and the government takes care of me.”

“I don’t think less of you.”

“…those nights when I’m gone. Usually the first in a row is to pick up a list of names. Then, three times a week, I go out and… neutralize them.”

Seungcheol said nothing.

“…that’s why I leave so often at night. I’m repaying a debt that goes back to when I was five years old. I’m not proud of what I do, Cheollie, but I’m working to keep everybody in this country safe from dangerous men. I’m working to keep you safe, me, Jun, Joshua, everybody. And I know it’s difficult for you when I’m gone… I wish I could change it. You’re so precious to me.” Jihoon rested his head on his hybrid’s shoulder.

“…thank you. For telling me.” Seungcheol simply held his master tighter to his chest and kissed his hair. “I love you.”

“Thank you.” Jihoon smiled, taking a deep breath. “…I shouldn’t have told you. So you can’t tell anybody, either. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“…I need to pick up another list tonight. It’s not too far – thirty minutes’ drive. I’ll be back quick. Will you stay with everybody at Jun’s house until I come back to pick you up?”

“Yes. Jihoon?”

“Yeah?” The young man looked up at his hybrid.

“…you’re my boyfriend.”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“As long as possible. Until we die, preferably. Or, well, I guess if we got that old, I’d like to be married.”

“…thank you.” Seungcheol’s face went soft with a goofy, affectionate smile. “You’re perfect.”

“I’m not perfect,” Jihoon grinned. “Let’s go back to Jun’s house.”

Seungcheol smiled, taking Jihoon’s hand as they walked. “I don’t think I ever really thanked you, Jihoon. For… not treating me like an animal. For treating me like a man. It’s… really nice. Being with you like a human. Walking. Talking. Holding hands. Fucking until the sun comes up. Eating breakfast together. I really like it. I… didn’t think I’d ever get a life like this, so… thank you.”

Jihoon smiled. “There’s nothing to thank me for. Now that I’ve known you as a man… I’d never want to let you be anything else than yourself. You’re so… so…” Words failed him. “So Seungcheol.”

Seungcheol smiled.

Leaving him behind was never easy, but for some reason Jihoon felt he should stay. All instincts that were seasoned for self-preservation were yelling at him to stay, a sick feeling twisted in his gut, like he should stay with his hybrid.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that. So he drove away, knowing that the hybrid would be safe with his friends.

It was a small hotel room this time: Jihoon was given the sealed envelope as always and, as always, he opened it there and scanned down it. One name stood out from the list.

 _Yoon Jeonghan_.

He scanned it again.

 _Lee Seokmin_.

Jihoon blinked, frowning a bit. What were Jeonghan and Seokmin doing on a list of anti-governmental radical terrorists?

“Sir, are you sure this is the correct list you’ve given me?”

“Yes, of course. Something wrong?”

Jihoon blinked. “No.” He folded the paper up again and slid it back into the envelope. “No, no, not at all.”

“…don’t go yet. Something is on your mind.”

Jihoon sat in an appointed chair, trying to think quickly. “I’ve always worked properly for you, Mr. Prime Minister. I’ve always done my duty, fulfilled my task without question or negotiation. I’ve never contradicted or questioned anything, ever.”

“But you’re not a seventeen-year-old boy anymore and you’d like to know a little more?” The prime minister smiled toothily.

“…yes, sir. Most importantly… lately, my hybrid has been giving me a sense of conscience.”

“Oh, dear.”

“…can there be _so_ many terrorists out there? You would have thought I’d offed them all by now.”

The prime minister huffed a little, folding his hands and leaning his chin on them. “…in reality, Jihoon, for the past few years now… we became aware of a certain piece of technology. These rebels are trying to get their hands on it. That would be… bad. Very bad. But without them, we can’t get it either, and we need it. It’s why you’ve been having to do more data retrieval lately, rather than real action. I know it’s been tough on you, but it’s important we get that technology.”

“What is it?”

“…it’s a microchip that has information stored on it. Vital information that could turn the tide of a rebel-government war.”

“We’re not at war.”

“Not publicly, no.” The prime minister glanced at his phone on the table and stood. “I think it’s time for you to leave now.”

“I think so too. Until three nights from now, sir.”

“Until then, Woozi.”

Little by little, the world began to piece together in Jihoon’s mind. For some reason, the word microchip was embedded in his brain.

Jihoon didn’t bother with taking the keys with him when he rushed into Jun’s house. “Where’s Seungcheol?!”

“He’s in the garden, he’s fine. There’s a big problem.” Seungkwan stayed Jihoon’s arms at his sides, not letting him through the hallway.

“…big problem?”

“…Joshua dropped to the floor just a couple of minutes ago. Pulse is weak. Breathing shallow. Jun is afraid…”

A wail went up into the air – it was pure, unadulterated anguish, pain, and anger. “Joshua!” It was Jeonghan’s voice. “Joshua don’t you dare!”

Seungkwan and Jihoon raced into the living room where Joshua was out cold on the floor, golden flecks all over his body.

“Joshua, no!”

“It’s too late,” Jun whispered. “Jeonghan! Jeonghan, it’s too late. He… he’s gone, sweety.”

Jihoon turned to look out the window, a kind of ice speeding through his veins. Everybody’s voices seemed to melt into the background, their worries and concerns unimportant. Jihoon stared out into the garden.

“Guys.”

He wasn’t heard.

“Guys.”

The room fell deadly silent at the empty, cold, almost weak tone of Jihoon’s voice.

“…where’s Seungcheol?”

Seungkwan and Wonwoo rushed over to the window. The collection of marbles Seungcheol had been playing with in the garden lay abandoned in the grass. The hybrid’s black collar lay beside them.

The three young men stood staring at an empty garden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, this is the author. As I am about to walk into hell (read: college final exams) this fanfiction will not receive a new update for at least three weeks. I ask for your understanding and patience.


	20. Mama (I Killed a Man)

There were moments of panic as Jihoon fled out into the garden, screaming for his hybrid: the panic in his veins was chased away by an angry, sickening ice running through his blood as a chopper hit the air close-by and rose to the sky.

Jihoon could only stare, heart crashing in his chest as the love of his life was carried away.

Inside the house, there was upset screaming: Jeonghan was beside himself, screaming his sobs away into Minghao’s shoulder as Jun held them both closely, with Joshua’s dead, gold-fettered body lying on the floor.

Seungkwan, Vernon, Wonwoo, Seokmin and Soonyoung simply sat around, unsure of what to do.

Eventually Seokmin darted out of the house to stand by Jihoon. “…hey. We’ll get him back.”

It was a dull echo at first, for Jihoon: it became stronger and louder each time Seokmin said it until he finally understood.

“We’ll get him back.”

It felt as if the fires of hell had just been poured into the man’s veins. Lava seemed to flow instead of blood: the world became super-heated with him as king of hell. Jihoon’s face was made of smouldering brimstone as he turned back into the house. Seokmin followed him naturally. “Jihoon?”

The man moved for the front door.

“Jihoon! Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find my fucking boyfriend,” Jihoon snarled, pulling a handgun out of the inside of his coat. He opened it and began to load it with bullets from another pocket.

“…why do you have a gun?”

“Jun.” Jihoon stomped back into the living room for a moment. “Take Joshua to the lab and see why he died.”

“I-”

“There is no possible way it’s a _coincidence_ Joshua died at the exact moment _my_ hybrid was taken away by _helicopter_ , just a few weeks after he was rescued from a _lab_. Find out why he died. Bet you a month’s wages they put technology in his brain.”

“Jihoon, I…”

Jihoon finished loading his gun, replacing it back into the inside pocket of his coat. “Call me the moment you have the results.”

“Jihoon!” Seokmin quickly darted for the man. “I’ll come along.”

Jihoon paused for only one second. “I need Soonyoung. Wonwoo stays with Jun.”

“Give me three minutes?”

“Seungcheol doesn’t have three minutes.”

“Jihoon.”

“I need to go pick up some stuff.” Jihoon pocketed his keys, opening the front door. “I’ll drive past back again this way when I’ve got them. Make sure you’re ready by then.”

 

Seungkwan patted his friend on the arm. “Don’t worry. We don’t have anything to do with all of this. He’ll be safe.”

Seokmin stared at Wonwoo.

The boy shook his head once – a quick burst, ruffling out the thick fur on his large, rounded ears. “I’ll be okay,” he reassured.

“Wonwoo.” Seokmin pulled the tall, quiet hybrid in for a tight hug. “…you stay out of trouble. Play nice with Vernon. Make sure to stay safe. I won’t forgive you if you get hurt.”

“Yes, sir.” Wonwoo smiled, hugging his owner. “Love you. You too. Don’t get hurt.”

Seungkwan took off with Vernon, Wonwoo and Minghao under his wing. Jun would have forced his long-haired lover to go too, but the hybrid wouldn’t be separated from Joshua. He simply sat by the boy, weeping silently, hissing at anybody who came too close to the body.

Seokmin turned to Soonyoung.

He was himself – all of him, from beginning to end, trapped in the body of an eight-year-old tiger hybrid. He looked up with so much wisdom and pain in his eyes, it was almost unbearable. Seokmin picked him up and put him on his lap. “…Soonie.”

“It’s okay.” Soonyoung’s tiny palm pressed against Seokmin’s cheek. “I’m not scared.”

“I am.” The man pressed his forehead to Soonyoung’s. “I’m scared, Soonie.”

“It’s okay.” Soonyoung took a deep breath. “I’m going to be okay. I can see the future. What could possibly go wrong?”

“So _much_.” His voice break, creaking. “So much could go wrong, baby.”

“Minnie, it’s okay.” Soonyoung smiled gently. “I want to do this. I _need_ to do this. Jihoon… he’s special. He might be the only one who can… he can save us all, Minnie. I want to help him however I can.”

“…if you get hurt-”

“I won’t. Even so, you’re there to protect me, right?” Soonyoung looked up, tiger’s ears twitching. “Jihoon is on to something big. I can _see_ it.”

“What?”

“…well, to be honest, it’s a bit murky. But he’s going to do something _big_ , Seokmin, and we have a duty to help him if we can.”

Seokmin nodded once, leaning in to kiss Soonyoung’s forehead. “I’ll protect you. You won’t be hurt again.”

Soonyoung smiled peacefully. “I know.”

 

Everything was starting to hurt. His extremities felt like he was going through another growth spurt – not that that was possible. His head was pounding and his insides were aching and twirling in their spots. Jihoon put it all down to stress as he packed his bag into the trunk of his car, entirely outfitted in black.

It felt as if his body was being ripped apart by tidal forces. Like he was pulling 20 Gs in a flight bomber crashing into the ocean. It was becoming hard to breathe, lungs working hard, bulging.

Seokmin and Soonyoung were waiting on the doorstep, hurrying into Jihoon’s car the moment he rolled up. He didn’t wait too long for everybody to fasten their seatbelts.

“Where are we going?” Seokmin asked immediately. “Do you know where they-”

“No.”

“So where?”

Jihoon’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he sped through the black of the night. “We’re going back to the lab I found Soonyoung in.”

“No.”

“Have to.”

“Why?”

“Shut up and let me drive.”

Soonyoung put a hand on his owner’s shoulder before Seokmin could really lose his temper. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “Let Jihoon work.”

 

The gates of the pound, where all the hybrids were kept, were a sad sight, iron off its hinges, swinging wide open, and they were simply a sample of what lay beyond.

After the great stampede that Jihoon had led out of the facility, the building had obviously been abandoned. Weeds were already starting to grow in the deserted parking lot, the front door swung open. Jihoon spared it no second look, instead moving to open the boot of his car.

He handed his handgun to Seokmin, who took the item with surprise and hesitance: he outfitted both the hybrid and his owner with earpieces and bullet-proof vests before filling some of his pockets with small metal items and gripping a machine gun in his hands. “Let’s go.”

“I’m sure I don’t want to know why you have all these guns.”

“I’m a spy. I work for the government. I kill people.”

“…you said you were a journalist.”

“Well, yeah. That’s my day job.” Jihoon led the two up towards the building.

The front room was pathetic: papers and debris were scattered all over the floor as entire chunks of the walls had been torn away in the wake of the hybrid’s departure. The electricity was obviously no longer working, so Jihoon’s flashlight was providing all it could. The man strode up, grunting under his breath, and began to connect a portable energy battery to the computer.

“…you okay?”

“Fine,” Jihoon spat out between gritted teeth. He wasn’t fine. His skin was on fire and his bones felt like jelly. Something was _wrong_ inside him.

“What are you doing?”

“Accessing the database.” Jihoon’s eyes scanned lines of code on the screen, trying to boot the system back up. “It’ll give me their other locations.”

Twenty minutes went by before Jihoon got the computer up and running, and another ten before he pulled the energy battery and some other gadgets from the device. “Come on.”

“You found it?”

“No, this computer isn’t connected to the right database. We’re going to have to hack the one in the lab.” Jihoon didn’t spare his companions another word, simply leading them into the bowels of the facility, amongst debris and useless empty bullet shells. He didn’t bother explaining what anything was, or why anything was there. He simply moved on until he found a lab with a computer and shifted inside.

“God.”

Jihoon winced. The bodies of hybrids in tubes had long since had died and begun to rot, now that there was no more power being supplied to the facility; they were still preserved in their tubes and confines, but the smell was extremely unpleasant. It actually burned the inside of the man’s nose to smell it.

Seokmin spent a little time throwing up. Jihoon spent his time grunting and muttering, plugging energy batteries into things until both the lights came on and the computer started up.

When Seokmin and Soonyoung were finished being violently sick over the smells and sights they were encountering, Seokmin managed to put a hand on Jihoon’s shoulder. It was as if the motion _burned_ him. “Hey. You’re grunting a lot.”

“Pain.”

“Where?”

Jihoon felt so overwhelmed by the pain that seemed to be picking him apart cell by cell, he couldn’t answer. Then he took another deep gasp and coughed. “Everywhere,” he confessed, fingers flying over the keyboard.

Two coughs later the man spurted blood up.

“You need a hospital.”

“I need Seungcheol. Shut up. I’m coding. This computer’s a lot more secure than the one upstairs. This is going to take me a while.”

Seokmin looked over at his small tiger hybrid, the apple of his eye, before getting up and moving away. The phone in his hand was dialling before Soonyoung even noticed.

“Jun.”

“Seokmin. You okay?”

“Yeah. We’re all good. Well… listen, Jihoon… isn’t well.”

“…what do you mean?”

Seokmin winced, staring at the back of the man’s head. “He just coughed up a splatter of blood over the keyboard in front of him.”

“ _What?!_ ” Jun hissed. “Good God! He needs a hospital!”

“…you know how he looks at that hybrid.”

“…has he been hit or stabbed in the torso?”

“No. There’s nobody here.”

“…could be a stomach ulcer. Could be lung cancer for all we know. He needs a surgeon.”

“He won’t go. Is there _anything_ I can do for him?”

“…no.” Jun’s voice was resolute. “If he won’t see a surgeon, there’s nothing you can do.”

A moment of silence passed.

“Is that Jun on the phone?”

“Yeah.”

“Give it to me.”

Jihoon’s hand stuck out to receive the mobile phone and hitched it between his head and his shoulder as his fingers continued their work on the computer. “Jun.”

“Jihoon. Hear you’re not doing so well.”

“I feel _fucked_.” Jihoon closed his eyes a moment. “That’s not the point. How goes the autopsy?”

“Just getting to it. You’re on speakerphone. I had to sedate Jeonghan. He was-”

“Sh. Tell me when you find what killed him.”

Half a minute of an eternal silence passed in the rooms on either end of the phone call until Jun let out a little gasp. “Oh my God,” he whispered.

“Jun. Talk to me.” Jihoon’s fingers never left the keys, eyes never left the screen. His face was scrunched up, displaying how much pain he was in. His skin seemed to be changing, too – in the faint light of the lab, it was going an awful grey colour.

“…metal. There’s a ball of _metal_ in his brain. He died of an aneurysm. But it wasn’t a blood clot. It was a hunk of _metal_. What the _fuck_?!” The man uttered a few more useless facts about aneurysms, but it seemed to pass Jihoon a little as he thought.

“Jun.”

“Yes?”

“Could that metal have been in his brain his whole life?”

“No. Never. It was somewhere else in his body and it must have travelled there, just like a blood clot.”

Jihoon blinked. “…do you have an EM-pulse generator?”

“Excuse me?”

“An electro-magnetic pulse generator.”

“Yes I know what an EM pulse is!” Jun snapped back. “Why the _fuck_ would I have one of those?”

“They must have them somewhere, you work in a university lab. Surely some other department-”

“We have no use for EMPs when we’re saving people’s lives, Jihoon.”

“…okay, listen carefully. I’m going to walk you through it.”

“Through what?”

“Creating an EMP generator.”

An hour later, Jihoon was hacked into the system and searching for about twenty different code words, letting the slow computer work itself through all of its systems and databanks. In the meantime, Jun had created a small EMP generator.

“It’ll only work once and it won’t be strong, but it should be enough.”

“Why am I doing this?”

“…point it at Joshua’s aneurysm and set it off.”

“Jihoon, his aneurysm is a hunk of _metal_. There’s no EM-field coming off of it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Humour me,” Jihoon demanded, his voice tight.

“Okay,” Jun answered, doubtful. “Here we go.” A few seconds later, the man was choking down the line. “What the _fuck_ , Jihoon?!”

“What?”

“It’s gone, it’s fucking _gone_ , it just dissolved into _nothing_ and I-”

“Stay away from where it was! Keep your hands off the body!” Jihoon hissed down the line. He now had one hand stuck under his armpit to disguise what state his skin was in. It was grey and dry, almost scaled in its dryness.

“Why?” Jun barked back, a little frightened by his friend’s tone. “Jihoon?”

“…they’re nanites,” Jihoon spat. “Microscopic robots that-”

“Yes, I know what nanites are.” Jun muttered sarcastically. “I _am_ a biochemist you know. How did they put nanites into our Joshua?”

“…does he still have his ownership chip?”

“Of course, I gave him a full check-up when you came home with him.”

“I’m asking you whether he has it _now_.”

It took another few minutes before Jun was back. “…no. Are you trying to tell me-”

“His ownership chip was made up out of nanites. They became re-programmed to fall apart, get sucked into the blood stream and re-convene in his brain.”

“Oh my God, Jihoon.”

“Yeah. If you can, please get into some Hazmat gear.”

“…I will.” Jun shuffled on the other end. “How goes things with you? What are your symptoms?”

“Can we not talk about that?” the man groaned. His scaly hand dropped to his stomach, where blood had slowly started to seep through pores in his skin. “Listen, call me if you find anything else. Okay?”

“…sure. Good luck.”

“You too.” It was several minutes before Jihoon spoke again. “…I can’t access hybrid files.”

“Why not?”

“In order to access the files, I need to be _studying_ a hybrid.” Jihoon nodded at a large kennel on the far side of the lab. “…that’s got a special pressure plate in it. I need Soonyoung to sit in there and activate it for me.”

“I’m not putting him in a kennel.”

It was too late – the tiger had already guessed what needed to happen, and he was sauntering over to the kennel, gently sitting in it.

“Soonyoung!”

“It’s okay. I’m not scared. You’re here, right? I’m not scared. Is it working?”

Seokmin stormed towards the small boy as Jihoon ran a program.

“…no.”

Soonyoung blinked, and Jihoon gave the abused boy a pained look. “…you’re going to need to close and lock the kennel for it to connect.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I’m sorry, Soonyoung.” Jihoon whispered. He was falling apart at the seams – physically and mentally. He felt like he was changing too much.

“It’s okay. I won’t be hurt.” Soonyoung closed the kennel and Seokmin locked it.

“How long does he have to stay in there?”

“Until I can run my programs.”

“How long will that be?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Jihoon!”

“It’s okay,” Soonyoung’s little voice said from inside the dark kennel. “It’s okay.”

Hours later, with the sun on the rise, the programs were still running, searching, decoding, trying to hack into the data mainframe. Jihoon’s vision was going – sometimes blurry, sometimes infrared, sometimes filled with dazzling colours the boy had never witnessed before.

Seokmin had chosen a seat next to Jihoon to get a few hours of sleep, but now he was awake again, watching Jihoon work.

Suddenly there was a small _boom_ noise.

Soonyoung let out a _scream_. It was as if lungs three times his size had been filled to the brim with air and let out in the most gruelling, _horrifying_ scream of pain and terror that had ever been called out. His little fingers gripped the bars of the kennel, rattling it. “NO!” he screamed, rattling the kennel, tears breaching down his cheeks. “NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!”

It was too obvious he had seen something – too obvious something horrible was happening in the near future. Seokmin jumped to his feet instantly, stripping over chairs, tables and kennels that lay between him and the far side of the lab. “Soonyoung? Soonyoung!”

“NO, NO, NO!” the tiny boy screamed, rattling his case. “SEOKMIN NO!” His throat was already raw, he was screaming so hard. “SEOKMIN NO, NO NO NO!”

Then suddenly, Seokmin halted in the middle of his mad dash for the boy he loved. He simply stopped, standing in the middle of the lab. A red rose blossomed, staining the front of his shirt.

“NO, SEOKMIN NO!”

The man fell to the ground. Shot in the back. He looked up once, stretching his hand out. He was close. So close to touching Soonyoung’s fingers. So close to touching the person he loved most in the whole world one more time, one last, precious time.

Seokmin died, right in front of Soonyoung.

Jihoon turned, pointing his gun at the attacker automatically, but then freezing in shock when he saw who had killed his friend.

“…Mama?!”


	21. Goodbye, Jihoon

The woman stood in a plain brown dress to her knees and black combat boots, holding her side where blood was blossoming from. She slowly put down the gun.

“…baby?” Her familiar eyes squinted and her jaw dropped. “…my baby?”

“Mama, what the _fuck_?”

“He was going to hurt the hybrid,” she snapped.

At that moment Soonyoung burst forth from his cage, draping himself over Seokmin in an attempt to pull him up, still screaming.

Jihoon simply sat there, staring at his mother in disbelief.

Then suddenly Soonyoung was racing at her – before Jihoon could move to stop him the small tiger hybrid had ripped a chunk out of the woman’s bloody stomach before she managed to hit him with a syringe, making him hit the ground instantly.

“Mama?! What the _fuck_ are you doing to my friends?!” Jihoon held up the gun again out of instinct.

“Don’t worry. It’s a hybrid serum. He’ll sleep for hours.” She looked up, tears in her eyes as she struggled to walk forward. “…my baby? My Jihoonie?”

“Mama…” Thousands of questions swirled through Jihoon’s head – two blaring in grand alarm (number one, where was Seungcheol, number two, am I dying?) and others in vague distress (why did you kill my friend and where the fuck have you been the past twenty-odd years?). The boy gripped his head against the headache.

His mother froze, eyes widening. “…you’re… not well.”

“I’m _changing_ ,” the boy managed to grunt out between gnashed teeth. “What the fuck is happening to me?!” he burst out into tears, stinging and aching riddling him through. “What is happening to me, mama?!”

She began to struggle forward again, obviously trying to reach the chair next to her long-lost son, gripping the bloody gash in her side. “I never… thought… I’d see you… again. Never thought… you’d reach… adulthood.”

“Mama?!”

“Stay still.” She made her way to a cabinet and pulled out a vial, loading it into her syringe.

Jihoon backed away naturally, letting the wheels of his computer chair take him away. “What the fuck?!” he managed to spit.

“…this will give you _time_ ,” she panted, eyebrows rocking up in desperation. “I need to give you _time_.”

“Time for what?”

“Before you _expire_.”

“Expire?!”

“…you’re a hybrid, Jihoon.”

 

As many mothers, Mrs. Lee was not a woman to be trifled with: nor was she the kind of person easily swayed by the impending death of her son and only child or a bloody gash that had ripped her body open. These matters she took simple care of with a syringe and a first aid kit.

Jihoon was on something closely resembling an operating table as the aching soothed inside his head, his blood began to cool slightly and all the bleeding ceased.

“I don’t know how long this will stave off the maturity,” she admitted, using a baby wipe to casually clean blood off her hands. “…thirty hours, if you’re lucky.”

“Mama… you have some explaining to do.”

Her face has been matured by fate; her hair was going grey and her skin was dull and wrinkled. The world had not been kind to her, obviously. When she sighed and wheeled her chair to sit beside her son, it was as if the weight of the planet lay upon her shoulders.

Her eyes reflected a remorse that was chained deeper in her soul than any emotion Jihoon had witnessed in another person. “…there’s so much to tell you. Jihoon… things that happened long before you were born… things that happened too long ago…”

“Try.” The sarcasm and cutting edge of the boy’s unimpressed demand brought a smile to his mother’s worn-out face.

“…your father was not a bad man, Lee Jihoon,” she whispered. “He’d worked for the police force all his life. He’d seen too many dark things, baby, too many dark things.” She picked up her son's hand, staring at it as she told her story.

“I was Jang Doyoon’s assistant when he was young. I helped him create the first hybrids – beautiful creatures. We thought we were enhancing the human race. Giving men and women cuter appearances and heightened senses. We thought we were going to save the planet… We should have known that a world which ousts its own people based on their skin colour could never be a world where hybrids were accepted. But we learned too late. We learned far too late…

“The government took control of the labs, the project, everything. We were forced under contract with them. It was the highest dictation. Doyoon… it was breaking him apart. He was ordered to do all kinds of experiments, try all sorts of… _monstrosities_ … it was eating away at him. He didn’t want it. Didn’t want any of it.

“…your father and I didn’t agree on the hybrid situation. He’d seen too many bad hybrids. When a hybrid failed, became feral, it usually escaped and the police were left to deal with the creature. Of course he couldn’t see them as we saw them… he didn’t _understand_ …

“…when I became pregnant, Doyoon and I saw an out. We realized what my baby could be. _Who_ he could be. The hybrid issue was escalating, not declining as we’d hoped. It was spiralling out of control with documents leaked and DNA samples patented… the world was at war, briefly, over the creatures. We just wanted a _better_ earth and we _fucked up_.”

Her brow furrowed in pain, as if the destruction she had witnessed was playing in front of her eyes over and over again.

“…I realized too late. That I was pregnant. So late. Too late. It was… the DNA was supposed to be implanted before the 8th week, and I was already at nine. We had to hurry… we didn’t think it would work… We used the lop-eared rabbit. Rabbit DNA seemed to take far easier, with less complications than others. If we were to have any chances, that was it.

“In a few days we had our answer. The DNA had taken. And even without a synthetic environment… inside _me_ you were still growing normally. So… we began our work to create the greatest soldier the world had seen. The one to halt wars. The one to end the tyranny of the government, of the president himself. He was going to succeed where we were to fail. He was going to save the world.

“We gave him… DNA of the chimpanzee for agility, and the salmon for strength. Chameleon, for camouflage. Dolphin for intelligence. We gave him the DNA of the jaguar for speed and even managed to scrape what little we could from the bones of a T-Rex to make him lethal. He was to be the perfect soldier.”

“…I was in my third trimester. I was… it was…” She struggled for a moment, pressing her lips to the back of Jihoon’s hand. “Doyoon was the most brilliant mind I had ever known. He created nanites that formed into a chip when they had finished their job. They would hide every inch of my soldier’s being, of what he truly was. They would make him look and function like a normal human. Scrub the evidence of his hybrid splicing and remain in his neck as a chip. But when I gave birth, and the nanites were implanted… they took too long.

“They did take. Eventually. Scales disappeared, gills retracted, whiskers fell out – but it was supposed to take minutes. Instead, it took three days. That was when we realized we’d made a fatal error.

“The human body was never meant to take on extra DNA. You can integrate one animal without compromising the structure of the human body… but we gave you _seven_. And when you were born… you were the most beautiful thing I ever laid eyes on. And I thought… _how could I do this?_ We didn’t think you’d ever grow up. Our soldier was a failure. And I… I couldn’t let you _go_. You were my baby boy. The most beautiful baby boy there ever lived.

“I never told your father what happened, what I had done to you… what I had done to our son… I figured when he found out he would want to kill me. But I also figured he wouldn’t find out till you died, and I wasn’t planning on outliving you anyway.

“One day… Doyoon didn’t show up for work. He left me a message to meet him and just _disappeared_. I knew something was up. Something was… wrong. I didn’t know what to do, so… I just grabbed you and _ran_. I left you to sleep in the hotel and I went to meet Doyoon.

“Instead, they found _me_.”

She paused for a long time, but Jihoon couldn’t speak.

“They brought us both back to the labs, kept a stricter leash on us for the first six years or so. Told me my son had died. Had… expired. We kept working… kept working…

“Your death broke me. Broke my will. I was… weak. But it did something else to Doyoon. It changed him. He had the death of a little boy on his hands and he knew it. But he didn’t break or bow under the pressure. Instead… he became glorious. I’ve never known a man like him… never had so much respect for a man.

“He took the formula we used to disguise you… a formula they _never_ found… and he began to alter it. Augment it. Add to it. He was getting close… so close… he was going to change everything around all over again. The war had ended, but the hybrid issue was still afoot and he was to blame… He just wanted to make the world a better place.

“It was a long process, and then an even longer one of feigning depression. Eventually they sent him to a government-approved shrink. He pretended that creating hybrids and not being able to own one was taking its toll on him. The shrink… convinced them to let him have his own hybrid.

“He chose the golden retriever, one of the most loyal dogs. Man’s best friend. He always was a dog person. He’d had a mastiff and a Labrador when he was little. We rarely spoke about… things like that. Personal things. Or the secret things he was doing at home. But then… we were like that, able to sense what the other was thinking with a single look. That’s what happens when… when you’re brother and sister.

“It’s almost a year, now, or so. Since he created his own hybrid. A puppy. An adorable puppy. His name was Seungcheol. We’d done plenty of experimentation with growing hybrids faster – regressing their ages – freezing their ages – all of it. We knew what would happen if we grew them out too fast. Brain damage. Irreparable damage. They would, for all intents and purposes, be vegetables. So he grew his hybrid out slowly. It took him… about three months to grow him out to a full man’s body.

“His plan was all in action. He implanted the chip when the creature was still just a pup – so that it would grow out around the chip. It would never be accessible to anybody he didn’t want it to be accessible to. He hid it _inside_ his hybrid. He was a genius. A real, true genius. The chip is voice-activated. If you say the right password… that hybrid could be the key. The key to _everything_. To solving this. Solving _all_ of this. It’s… it’s… Jihoon, baby, I can’t believe you’re _alive_.”

Jihoon stared back at his mother for a few moments. “Mama… Seungcheol’s chip. His second chip. What is it? What’s on it?”

His mother looked up solemnly. “The chip will dissolve into nanites that will scrub the hybrid DNA from his body. Then they will join together, link up to the Global Hybrid Database, and upload their program to every other hybrid in the world. If it’s activated, within twenty minutes… every hybrid on earth will be dead. Leaving in their wake only humans. Hybrids will return to what they were _meant_ to be. No more… experiments, no more abominations. _Just_ humans.  The beautiful humans they always were.”

“…your plan is to undo every hybrid ever?”

“…yeah.”

Jihoon stared at his own hands for a moment. “…if I don’t activate that chip…”

“You’ll die,” she confirmed.

“…when those nanites come together. After they have formed a link. What then?”

“…I don’t know. Doyoon was supposed to tell me, but… that was the night he was murdered. Your uncle.” She cleared his throat. “I can only assume those nanites would work the same way our current nanites do. They act like a polyp. Create a heart attack or an aneurysm – depending on where they form.”

“…so the hybrid this special program is in will die.”

“…yes.” She saw the look on her son’s face. “One hybrid for the lives of hundreds of thousands. Is that not a fair price, Hoonie?”

Jihoon looked back at his mother. “Not if it’s him.”

She frowned. “What?”

“Seungcheol is _my_ hybrid.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“And I will _not_ let him die.”

“Jihoon…”

“Regardless… what’s the activation code?”

“How should I know?”

“…you were his assistant and sister?”

“I have no idea.” She shrugged her shoulders, and then patted her palms down all over her son as he tried to get up. “What are you doing?! You need to rest.”

“The only way I’m getting out of this alive is if I go find my Seungcheol,” Jihoon gnarled through his snapped jaw. “…where is he?”

“Jihoon I-”

“I asked, where is he? I won’t ask a third time.” The man’s glare upon his own mother made her gasp in surprise.

“…he’s in the president’s house.”

Jihoon got up and picked Soonyoung up in his arms.

“What are you doing?!”

“…I’m going to get some friends to pick him up. You! Stay here and work on that activation code.”

“…Doyoon said that it could only be activated when the hybrid had reached his full potential and fulfilled its purpose, how the _hell_ am I-”

Jihoon didn’t wait for his bleeding mother to finish her sentence: he simply turned around, a tiger hybrid in his arms. “Mama.”

“…yes, my baby boy?”

“…you and papa were the only people in this world I ever loved. Now… that’s not true anymore. I’m _begging_ you… to think about what the activation code might be.”

She gripped the bandages at her side and gently wheeled her chair back to the computer desk with a slow nod. “…yeah. For you, my baby boy. Mama loves you too.”

Jihoon smiled. “Thank you. Mama.” With that he simply strode out, pulling out his phone to dial Jun.

His mother watched him leave the complex with a forlorn, almost confused smile. “Maybe,” she whispered out loud, “he’s the soldier we wanted after all, baby brother. Maybe.”

Jihoon left Soonyoung alone in his car, four blocks away from the president’s house, and didn’t leave him there until Jun arrived on the scene in his own car.

“…Seokmin?”

Jihoon worked hard to swallow. “…he didn’t make it.”

Jun stared at the small tiger in his arms. “…no,” he whispered desperately. “No, he just got home. He just got home, Jihoon! Seokmin can’t be gone. He just can’t! Soonyoung just came home to him!”

Tears rolled down Jun’s cheeks, staring at Soonyoung’s sleeping face.

Jihoon pressed a hand to Jun’s shoulder. “…Jun, please take care of them.”

“Jihoon… what’s happening?”

“I’m going to… somewhere. And I might never come back. There’s a distinct possibility you might never see Seungcheol or me again, ever.”

Jun looked up in acute distress.

“I want you to know one thing.”

“…yes?”

“If we don’t come back… I know you’re a rebel leader for the faction moving against the government, in order to secure the rights of hybrids. Jun, if I don’t come back… I need you to _never, ever_ stop trying. Can you promise me that?” Jihoon gripped him by the shoulders. “Can you promise me that, Jun?”

The man looked up once and nodded slowly. “I promise. I will never, _ever_ stop trying for my boys.”

Jihoon smiled, once. “Thank you.”

“But Jihoon?”

“Yes?”

“…come back. With Seungcheol.”

Jihoon couldn’t speak to that. “…thank you for everything, Jun. If I don’t see you again… good luck. Farewell. All of you. Pass it on.”

“I will.” Jun watched Jihoon run off through the streets as the world began to darken at the end of another day. “…Goodbye, Jihoon.”


	22. A Chat with the President

“…I knew you were good. I didn’t know you were _this_ good.”

“You had me well-trained,” Jihoon returned, sweaty and panting, reloading his Heckler machine gun. “…also, your security forces shoot like storm-troopers.”

The vice-president’s face was blank.

“Storm-troopers?” Jihoon motioned with the gun, motioning for the man to sit in his chair. “Star Wars? Big guys in white armour that couldn’t hit a stationary elephant at point blank range?” Silence reigned as the vice-president sat in his chair. “Do you even _have_ Netflix?”

“Woozi. I know… uh, I know this all must be very hard for you.” The man started to stand again.

“You want to keep all your toes, you’re going to sit the fuck back down,” Jihoon snarled at him.

The man slowly descended back into his seat.

“Do tell me, Mr. Vice-President. _What_ must all be very hard on me?”

The man who had practically raised Jihoon did not answer.

“You don’t know.”

“Now, Woozi-”

“You. Don’t. Know. You don’t know why I’m here.”

“…we took a hybrid,” the Vice eventually spat out.

“You took _my_ hybrid!” the anguished scream reverberated in the walls of the room: it drew the far-off footsteps closer, though it was futile. This section of the house had been sealed off. Jihoon had made _very_ sure of that. “You took away _my_ hybrid, _my_ Seungcheol!”

“You were never supposed to have a hybrid!”

Jihoon gave the man a very well-aimed, _very_ angry punch in the face. Blood spurt from the man’s nose all over his white shirt.

“That’s for my Cheollie.”

“Woozi! You were trained for a _purpose_.” He held his nose tightly to staunch the flow of blood, trying to talk around it. “You were supposed to help us _get rid_ of hybrid-lovers!”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer.

“Why, damn it?! Why _me_? Why did you kidnap and lie to _me_?!”

“Because we could!”

This earned the Vice-President a kick in the stomach.

“Okay, okay! The president… he wanted you. He wanted men like you on the watch. Vigilantes. Everything is his idea. Everything!”

“Mr. Vice President, do you know what I am?”

“…you’re my under-sized Walsingham.”

“No, sir. I am a _hybrid_.” Jihoon leered, leaning forward, smirking as the Vice-President could not keep the shock off his face. “I’m a hybrid, _for_ hybrids, never against them. And do you know what I’m going to do?”

“…what?” he spat, blood dripping onto the carpet.

“I’m going to _activate Seungcheol’s code_.”

“No!”

“Oh, yes. Every hybrid in the world will return back to human form. No more hybrids. No way to tell who was once a hybrid and who was not.”

“The experiments! The tests! All for nothing!”

“Every. Single. Damn. Hybrid. _Human._ ” The smirk on Jihoon’s face revelled in delight at the Vice’s horror. “You hate that, don’t you? You see them as lesser beings. As abominations.”

“Because they are!”

“They are _not_!” Jihoon growled. “They are beautiful and kind and healthy people! They are the most magnificent people you will ever meet! Honest and forgiving and generous – far better than any regular old human. Hybrids are the most beautiful people on the planet!”

The Vice-President could only spit blood at the idea.

“I am going to make sure you _never, ever_ hurt one of my kind again.” Jihoon was spitting his words out from between his teeth. Too many hours had gone by. His mother had given him thirty, but only ten had gone by, and the stinging had returned.

“I will take every chance away from you. You will never kidnap another child and train them to be your assassin. You will never force-labour scientists into creating messed-up miscreants again. You have no more chances.”

“Woozi,” the man gasped. “Think about what you’re doing. You can’t go back on us. Didn’t I take care of you? Didn’t I?!”

“…you told me my mother was dead,” Jihoon answered in feigned confusion. “And told my mother that I was dead.”

“Ara.” The Vice-President’s eyes bulged. “…the hybrid took a chunk out of her when she tried to free him. She’s in the infirmary.”

“…no she’s not. She got out.”

The Vice-President tried to move to his computer to see security screens as somebody began to saw the metal door behind him open with a plasma cutter. The man was dissuaded by Jihoon’s gun.

“Woozi. Hundreds will die.”

“You kill hundreds by the _day_ ,” the man answered in pure disgust. Jihoon slowly pulled a grenade from his bag, pulled the clip and fastened the small cone to the underside of the Vice-President’s chair.

“ _Arrivederci, bitch._ ” Jihoon picked up his bag and made for the next secure room.

“Woozi!” the Vice screamed, trying to pull the grenade from his chair. “Woozi, I-”

The room behind him went up in flames with a bang loud enough to pop one’s eardrums. But as he had recently found out, Jihoon’s eardrums were made of something a little more special.

Most security was behind the metal door, trying to access the part of the President’s house that Jihoon had now claimed, but there were still some men darting around on the inside. He dodged, escaped and gunned down too many, as his brain was split between the screeching ache of his body being torn apart, and the reality that would rip his soul apart.

In order for Jihoon to live, Seungcheol would die. If Seungcheol lived, Jihoon would die.

The President’s house was fancy, but the President himself was not available in his office. Obviously the constant gunfire and that one grenade _may_ have tipped him off that something was afoot in his house.

Jihoon clambered from room to room, sometimes on the outside of the complex, searching for the man that all trails seemed to lead to, and one was usually as empty as another.

Time was pressing. Jihoon didn’t have time. He didn’t have thirty hours. Hell… he probably didn’t even have thirty minutes. He called his mother via his earpiece, letting it ring.

Miles away, deep underground, a mobile phone went off in a cold room. It vibrated against the desk until it fell right off it, vibrating face-down on the floor, in a puddle of cold blood that still trickled from a woman’s lifeless fingers.

Deserted rooms led to deserted kitchens: deserted kitchens led to a deserted wine cellar, which in turn, had its own trap door.

 _What do people keep under their wine cellars?_ Jihoon thought, opening the hatch.

_…laboratories. Of course._

Jihoon didn’t bother with the ladder – it was a large metal thing on a grate that looked like it would creak and fuss with as little as a wrong look. Instead he dropped down to the level below with agile ease and quickly pressed himself into a men’s bathroom stall.

The complex that had been excavated under the President’s house was as large as the house itself, and again was outfitted with three stories of its own. Jihoon easily tapped into the separate network that safeguarded the security cameras underground, once he had found a terminal near an airshaft he’d shimmied through.

Being undersized certainly had its advantages when it came to things such as pipes, sewers, airshafts and any other small, cramped places.

While the security cameras could certainly give Jihoon very interesting pictures, it did little to provide him with any sense of direction. Eventually he gave up, stinging in his limbs reminding him of how close he was to the end of his time, and he simply chose a direction to shuffle to.

The first room where he thought he might find the president, turned out to be a different male voice – that of a doctor giving a female nurse directions as to medication. Jihoon peered through the grate at the scene.

The room was much like a compact hospital: at the far end there lay a CAT-scan machine, and what looked like it could be an x-ray machine. On the near end, close to where Jihoon was peering down, there was a hospital bed occupied.

The figure in the bed was male – not a fully-grown male, but a young boy. Maybe fourteen, fifteen at most. Eyes closed. He had one of those funny tubes that Jihoon didn’t know the name of in his nose, and several needles putting clear liquids and blood into his arm.

Even Jihoon had to admit the boy didn’t look too good. He was pale and skinny, and lay there with utter passivity. Awake – his eyelids were fluttering – but too weak or too bored to make notice of the doctor and nurse in the room with him.

“…and tell him… there’s nothing more that can be done without radical treatment.”

“Yes doctor.”

Jihoon scurried as quickly and silently as possible, trying to follow the nurse via the airshaft: she wasn’t an easy woman to follow, what with grates only popping up now and then. At least the clicking of her heels in the tiled hallways gave the young assassin some kind of direction.

The room she entered was completely sealed off. There was no window, no pane of glass, no nothing. Where the hospital had been entirely see-through from the hallway, this room was closed.

_The kind of room where… you don’t want people to see what goes on in there._

The nurse went in, and then came back out. A few seconds later, when she had walked back the way she had come, the President stepped out of the room, and carried on along the hallway.

Jihoon could have swooped there and then. He contemplated it very carefully. Threaten the President. Demand his hybrid back. Somehow sort this whole thing out.

But a gut feeling told him that this ideal plan would somehow probably not work.

So he followed. The President was a heavy-set man, broad-shouldered, and while he wasn’t tall, he was certainly straight and upright in his walk. He bore the walk of a leader. It was a much quieter walk than the nurse’s high heels. More difficult to follow.

The President opened another door to another closed-off room, but his voice boomed and reverberated before it closed again.

“…has he said anything?”

“No sir.”

“Then start the procedure.”

The door slammed shut loudly, and Jihoon could bare it no more: with a fire rushing through his veins, breaking out into a cold sweat with his skin turning colours rapidly he kicked his way out of the airshaft and kicked in the door.

The President stood to the side of the room. In the middle lay a long medical table. Seungcheol, alive, eyes wide and frightened, had been tied to it, face-down. Every limb was strapped down with leather, buckled restraints. The hybrid could barely twitch a finger. The only thing he could do was scream in horror.

Above Seungcheol stood a man in scrubs and a surgical mask, scalpel in hand. He was shot on sight.

Jihoon turned his gun towards the man in the bespoke suit.

“Mr. President.”

“…Woozi,” the President answered in vague recognition.

“…I think it’s time we had a chat.”

“…I think so too.”


	23. Nanite Confusion

“Mr. President. I am here to inform you that you have been found guilty.”

“Excuse me?”

“Of crimes against man and nature.” Jihoon made sure his gun was pointed at the president as Seungcheol’s screams ceased and died away at the sight of his master. “You have been found guilty of manslaughter, experimentation on humans, forced labour, approving mass genocide, allowing for the conducting of disfiguration and torture of hybrids, and stealing.”

The President raised an eyebrow.

“You _stole_ my hybrid. I’m here to take him back.”

“Master!”

“Hush, Cheollie.”

A quick silence quilted the room for a moment as the President took two steps across the room, then stopped in the middle. “…tell me why you are so angry.”

“Nobody touches my boyfriend.” Jihoon snarled a little, locking joints to keep himself upright under the duress of his body breaking out. “He belongs with _me_. He’s my _everything_. You took him away from me. I just want him back.”

“…that’s not all you want.”

Jihoon shook his head a little, shifting his weight. God, he was getting dizzy. “…why? I just… don’t understand. Everything done… done under your order. _Why_? What could possibly be gained from… growing hybrids quickly? Turning them young? Giving them… psychic powers? When you obviously hate them!”

“They’re not _human_.”

“So that gives you the right to create them for the sole purpose of torture and destruction?”

The President took a deep breath, sighing most of it if away. “You’re young. Just a young man. You don’t know. You could never understand. Your mother… she understood. She understood more than most. She didn’t agree but… whenever I came to visit, she became complacent.”

“Don’t you _dare_ bring my mother into this,” Jihoon spat.

The President looked up. “…you don’t understand what it’s like to have _children_. To watch them suffer. To watch them slip through your fingers every waning moment of every agonizing hour. You don’t know what it’s like to watch your children _die_.”

Jihoon knew there was sense to be made of this, but his brain wouldn’t comply. He could feel flaps of skin pulling on the sides of his neck, feel his joints freezing up.

“…his name is Chan. He has Aids.” The President looked up at the young journalist wielding a machine gun. “…his mother was HIV-positive. He’s known his whole life he would die. We have to keep him in a sterile room to ensure that doesn’t happen. As you know… there’s no cure for Aids.”

“No.” Jihoon was barely functioning. “There isn’t.”

“But hybrids? Hybrids are a genetic _miracle_. Proof that what makes us human can be bent, can be changed. Imagine what we could learn from them. Eternal youth, increased vitality. Not just that… their DNA programming? Their _nanite_ technology? If we could re-program them… we could cure _anything_. Imagine a world free of Aids, HIV, cancer, diabetes. I could _save_ my little boy.”

Jihoon stared.

“And if I have to steal a few hybrids-”

“You are talking about the _mutilation_ ,” Jihoon growled, “and near _genocide_ of an entire _species_. Hundreds and thousands of humans, tortured to-”

“If that is what I have to do to save my son,” the President growled back, “then that’s what I will do! And I’d do it a thousand times over!”

“…has your son… ever seen a hybrid?”

The president took another agitated step away from Jihoon towards the middle of the room before stopping. “…no.”

“Does he know they exist?”

“He knows.”

“…is he the kind of boy who would want them to die in the _hopes_ he might be cured?”

“That doesn’t matter now,” the President snapped, pacing, irritated. “None of that matters. He has to get _well_ again.”

“Mr. President, how long has that boy been in that room?”

“…I don’t know. I don’t… _remember_. Most of his life.”

Jihoon couldn’t help himself. “…don’t you ever go _see_ him?”

“No. I work to get him _better_.”

“When was the last time you talked to your son?”

“When he was… I don’t remember.”

It was as if his bones were being broken one by one, like his skull was fracturing in a thousand pieces. That was why he didn’t see. Why he didn’t notice on time. Jihoon would later never forgive himself for that mistake.

The President lunged, taking a scalpel and holding it to Seungcheol’s neck. The hybrid whimpered out in surprise, and Jihoon re-adjusted his gun, holding it close for a good shot.

“Shoot me and I’ll kill him.”

“Let him go.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.” The President took his free hand to undo the bindings on Seungcheol’s feet and one of his hands. “Get up. Get up, mongrel!”

Jihoon readjusted his gun again, blood boiling.

“This hybrid… this hybrid has the ultimate nanite code inside of him. If that code is activated, it’s going to destroy my boy’s chances of ever living a normal life.”

“…he’s a teenager locked in a sterile room for as long as you can remember,” Jihoon muttered. “…he’ll _never_ live a normal life.”

Seungcheol was forced off the medical board and onto his feet, scalpel at his jugular. The hybrid stared at his master, weeping and whimpering.

“Shut up, beast.” The President glared, a glint of crazy in his eyes. “I’m taking that chip and I’m going to study it until I re-program those nanites.”

“You will _not_ hurt my Seungcheol.”

“Master!”

“Sh, baby.”

“My Chan is going to live,” the President growled. “I don’t care how many hybrids I have to slaughter!”

“…wouldn’t Chan prefer to take advantage of the life he’s been given right now,” Jihoon said slowly, adjusting his aim, “…than wait hopelessly as you try to find a cure that doesn’t exist?”

“What do you mean?!”

“…go to him. Talk to him. He’s your son. Read him a book or something. He’s your _son_ for God’s sake. Give up on this wild goose chase and take advantage of what little time you have with him.” Jihoon could feel _things_ growing out of his head, but somehow he managed to stay on his feet. “He’d rather live twenty years happy than seventy in a box.”

“What do you know?!” the president hissed angrily. “You don’t know anything!”

Suddenly, everything fell into place so quickly for Jihoon his jaw dropped.

“…Seungcheol.”

“Jihoon?”

The man panted once, then he said it. “ _Seungcheol, I love you._ ” With that, Jihoon dropped to the floor, taking in his last few friends.

The President dropped his scalpel in surprise.

Seungcheol hit the floor like a stone and began to convulse as thousands of nanites spread through his blood.

 

When Jihoon opened his eyes, Seungcheol was hovering over him, palm on his cheek. “Jihoon.” There was sobbing. Tears. “Jihoon, please wake up. Jihoon?”

It was Seungcheol’s voice, and Seungcheol’s face… but something was different.

“Jihoon, Jihoon please wake up. You’re awake! Jihoon, Jihoon, my Jihoon!”

The man frowned. “…Cheol?”

Seungcheol stared down, sobbing at the man he called master. “You’re awake!”

Jihoon stared at his boyfriend. No puppy ears. No wagging tail. No _nothing_. “…Cheol.”

“I love you too.” Seungcheol was peppering kisses all over Jihoon’s face. “I love you too, I love you too, I love you too! I love you too, baby!”

“Seungcheol, you’re not _dead_.”

“…no. Should I be?” He stopped in his ministrations, cocking his head slightly.

“…yeah, actually.” Jihoon stared up at him.

“…I’m not.”

“I can see that. The nanites… it must have been wrong.”

“They came out!”

“…what?”

“I puked up a little ball of metal.”

Jihoon slowly began to raise himself off the tiles. “…where’s the President?”

“I don’t know. He began screaming and ran away.” Seungcheol put his arm behind his boyfriend’s back, helping him to sit up. “…how are you feeling?”

It took Jihoon a moment to assess. “…pretty… good, actually,” he said, surprised.

“…can you… explain things to me? I’m super confused.”

“…you had a special chip inside you that your father gave you. It was voice-activated by a code only he knew. When activated, the chip would… scrub your animal DNA, making you human again. Then it would upload itself to every other single hybrid on the planet, and do the same to them.” Jihoon caressed his fingers through Seungcheol’s hair freely. “You’re human.”

Seungcheol’s hands flew to where his ears had been, then his tail: he sat there with his boyfriend, thinking about it for a while.

“Jeonghan? Soonyoung?”

“They will all be human again when we get back.”

“…oh.”

“…nobody will ever have a reason to hurt you or take you away again.”

“…that’s good,” Seungcheol decided. “But… I don’t think that’s right.”

“What’s right?”

“The upload thingy. Turning everybody human? That didn’t happen.”

“…what makes you say that?”

Seungcheol took one of Jihoon’s hands and lifted it up to the side of his head. Right there, over the sides of his head, lay two beautifully soft bunny ears.

“Oh my _God_ ,” Jihoon whispered.

“I didn’t know you were a hybrid.”

“…neither did I. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you some other time.” Jihoon smoothed over his new rabbit ears and then searched for a bob tail. He found it and squeaked a little, freezing. “…this is weird. I’m supposed to be human like you. I had _seven_ animals in me. Why am I still a rabbit?”

Seungcheol sat there, listening to his boyfriend think out everything out loud.

“Must be because I had so many animals’ DNA inside. The nanites could only scrub so much. The rabbit DNA must have stayed and developed because it was the first.”

“…Jihoon.” Seungcheol leaned in. “Jihoon, I need you.”

Jihoon reached out and gripped his boyfriend tightly in his arms, pressing the man to his chest. “Cheollie. It’s okay. I’m here now. I’m here now, baby.”

“…you came and rescued me again.”

“Didn’t I promise to never leave you?” Jihoon gripped the man he’d come so close to losing, letting his tears fall freely.

“…you said.” Seungcheol gulped, whispering. “You said you loved me.”

“…I do. I love you, Seungcheol. I love you.” Jihoon sniffed hard, pulling back to stare his boyfriend in the eye. “I love you, Seungcheol.” Then he leaned forward, and kissed him gently.

 

They looked a bit silly in the hazmat suits, but there was no point in taking any chances. The boy in the bed was a little scared, and a little curious. “Who are you?”

“I’m Jihoon. This is Seungcheol, my boyfriend. It’s okay, we mean you no harm. We’re just here to play.”

“Play?” The boy perked up.

“Yeah. Your name is Chan, right?”

“Yeah, I’m Chan. Why are your ears like that?”

Jihoon chuckled and pulled out a brand new game of cards, ripping open the plastic around it. “Long story. How about I tell you, while I teach you how to play Go Fish?”

Chan sat up in his bed. “Is it a fun game?”

Jihoon smirked. “It’s a _great_ game.”


	24. Epilogue

 

All hybrids were human. Jeonghan, Minghao, Wonwoo, Vernon, Soonyoung. Every hybrid on the planet. The world was in disarray. The President was missing. His house had been emptied but for the secret dying boy in the basement.

At the end of the day, much was different, so Jihoon and Seungcheol took little notice of the ensuing global politics.

Chan, the sick boy in his sterile room, had learned a lot – perhaps too much, for a young boy. But he seemed to be a perky kid who took every opportunity he could, and that was promising for his outlook on life. He asked Jihoon to teach him poker next time. Jihoon told him: not until he was eighteen.

Soonyoung and Wonwoo went through a process of extreme grief for Seokmin in the months that followed their loss of hybrid identity. To have finally had him back – after all that had happened – to have him ripped from their hands, was almost too much to bear. If they hadn’t had each other, they probably wouldn’t have made it.

Minghao enrolled in university. Jeonghan and Jun were endlessly proud of him. Minghao cried in happiness when he received his acceptance letter.

Jihoon spent days agonizing over his mother’s death – the time they could have and should have had together, the mismade life of an assassin he had been forced to live since. He grieved for what could have been, what should have been. But Seungcheol was always there to dry his tears, dissuade his fears, and hush his nightmares away.

 

“…I love you too, Jihoon.”

Jihoon smiled, swiping one of his long lopped ears back. “I’m glad. I’m glad I can say it now.”

Seungcheol chuckled, curling his arms around Jihoon’s waist as they waddled towards the bedroom. “I always knew you loved me. It was in every action you completed for me.”

Jihoon smiled. “…you’re welcome, baby.”

“You’re the best.” Seungcheol kissed the top of Jihoon’s head. “Now it’s my turn to take care of my hybrid, since you’ll be the last one ever. I’ll take the best possible care of you. I love you.”

“You know… there’s one really, really good thing about hybrids as opposed to animal pets,” Jihoon said conversationally as he chased their small terrier dog named Doogi off the crisp white bed.

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

Jihoon pointed at the bed with a soft, content smile. “They don’t leave pawprints on the bedsheets.”

 

**The End.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading this fanfiction.
> 
> Please remember to upvote, subscribe and comment if you enjoyed this fanfic, and follow me on twitter @17_maker if you want to get the latest updates and news.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody. You can follow my TWITTER @17_maker for spoilers, updates, questions, polls and all kinds of other fanfic-only nonsense. If you're interested please follow me.


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